A New World of Swords
by chromeflame109
Summary: In New ALO, the players are divided into two groups. The Regulars and the Death Gamers. This is the story of Regulars who fight to clear the hundred floors of Aincrad and stop a new threat to the VRMMO before a repeat of the events of the past occur. Rated M for violence and language just to be safe.
1. Prologue

Heavy rain cascaded down through the darkness, lightning snaking through the sky as thunder resounded throughout the area. The bone chilling wind tied the grim scene together as it swept through the ruined cityscape. Only half an hour previous had Chrome and his companions entered the supposed event area, seeking a one-time only monster said to drop an incredibly powerful weapon. Suffice to say, things had not gone as expected.

Chrome's heavy breathing could barely be heard over the sounds of the weather around him. His whole body felt weak as he tried to move from his kneeling position. It was no good, he just didn't have the strength to move. His eyes moved to his HP bar, it was in the red, barely visible. The long, crystal-like shield on his left arm was cracked and battered. The longsword in his right hand matched.

He glanced to the left, a tall young man was slumped against a ruined column, a one-handed sword rammed into the soft earth beside him. To Chrome's right, a woman was sprawled across the pathway with a battle-axe laying near her. They had been his party members upon entering the area but like him they had been taken down in mere moments when the enemy attacked.

Unlike the rumours though, the enemy hadn't been some monster. This particular enemy stood before Chrome now in a very humanlike form. The figure held a single steel sword, nothing special about it and they were covered entirely by a sapphire blue cloak. The figure's long, blonde hair was blown around violently by the wind as their silver eyes stared into Chrome's. There was no soul behind those eyes, nothing at all. They stared down at Chrome as if he were some sort of insect, an inferior being.

The figure strode over to the unmoving swordsman to Chrome's left and buried that steel sword in the defenceless young man's chest. Chrome's eyes closed and he mouthed the word no as the cloaked swordsman moved over to the woman now. The same merciless execution was performed on her too before the assailant returned to the kneeling sword and shield user.

His friends may have been slain, but Chrome wasn't about to let it end like this. A quarter of his HP had been restored by his battle healing skill and his body was responding once more. He let out a roar as he leapt to his feet and charged at the mysterious swordsman, his shield before him.

Not a single emotion crossed the face of the cloaked figure as his sword swept upwards, sending the crystal shield up and jarring Chrome's arm. Within a second, the sword moved again, two slashed forming an X on Chrome's chest followed by a lightning-fast thrust were the two slashes intersected. The swordsman kicked Chrome off his blade and the sword and shield user watched his HP gauge deplete as he fell backwards, his vision going dark.

"There are things in this world that humanity cannot control. Forces that shall not be shackled and wills that shall not be bent. May you drown in the ocean of your own despair as your mortal life seeps from your body…"

-You are dead-


	2. Chapter 1

Ren Hikari's body snapped up in bed and his hand went to his chest. "That same dream again…," he whispered, wiping the sweat from his brow with his sleeve. He glanced over at the AmuSphere on his desk, brushing his brown hair from his eyes. Ren swung his legs over the side of the bed and got up.

As he looked at the AmuSphere, the dream ran through his head again. He'd been seeing it quite a lot lately and each time it felt more and more real even though it was always about his ALO avatar Chrome, not him. He looked down his top, no cross shaped scars, that was always good. He took a swig from the warm bottle of water on his desk and sat down in his computer chair.

"Hmm, what's this?" he asked, noticing the flashing e-mail icon in the bottom corner of his screen. He clicked it and a small square of text came up on his screen.

Chrome,

Hey there. I managed to get out of today's meeting by faking sick. Wanna go on and do some grinding for that event quest in December? I'll meet you in the floor 26 dungeon.

Arcadia

"Jeez, she's so irresponsible," Ren sighed, closing the e-mail. He grabbed himself a quick breakfast before returning to his room and putting on the Amusphere.

He laid on his bed and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "Link start!" he said loudly. There was a bright light before his eyes as the AmuSphere made all its standard calibrations and loaded ALO. Soon his bedroom had been replaced by the scenery of the game.

Now as Chrome, he stood within the Aincrad realm of New ALfheim Online, his brown hair fluttering in the breeze. The tall young man was dressed in a green tunic and brown pants. A pair of brown leather boots stopped at his knees and a pair of black steel gauntlets with silver trim stopped at his elbows. On his left shoulder was a single spaulder matching the gauntlets and on his right hung a ragged, light brown cape.

He glanced around at the scenery of Lindas, the town he had logged out from before making his way to the twenty-sixth floor. Once there it was only a short time before he arrived at the entrance to the dungeon. Chrome liked the design of this particular dungeon quite a bit.

It was designed to look like a frozen castle inside. It was quite the sight to behold, he'd spent numerous hours wandering around its wide walkways just taking in the scenery when he first went in.

Standing outside the dungeon was a tall woman wearing a set of simple forest green armour with gold trimmings. Her purple hair sat in a bob cut at her shoulders and strapped to her back was a massive dual bladed battle-axe. Her blue eyes watched as Chrome approached, an eager expression on her face.

"You sure took your sweet time," the axe wielder said with a fake pout. Chrome shook his head and stopped before her. Although she acted immature at times, Arcadia was quite a bit older than Chrome which could be seen in her avatar's more mature appearance.

"I was getting breakfast, unlike you I won't skip things just because I feel like it," Chrome remarked, raising an eyebrow.

"Hey it was just a boring old faculty meeting, I'm sure the school will be fine if I miss one," Arcadia said, walking through the frozen doors of the dungeon.

"Setting a fine example for your students as always."

"Oh shut it. I work hard, I need a break every now and then."

"Like every afternoon when you come on here and neglect all of your work."

"Hush you. I get it all done."

The two walked through the frozen castle, Arcadia with her hand on her axe handle and Chrome with his hand on the sword at his waist. It was barely two minutes before they were set upon by a monster, a set of armour wielding a sword and shield, ice coating random parts of its body.

"I'll take this" Arcadia said with a grin, brandishing her mighty axe. Arcadia and the monster charged at each other with equal vigour but it was obvious who was going to win. The axewoman swung her weapon with tremendous force, depleting almost a quarter of the Possessed Armour's HP with that single swing. The monster returned an attack but Arcadia blocked it with the handle of her axe before delivering an upwards attack that knocked her enemy off balance.

"Switch!" Arcadia yelled and Chrome came running in, his weapon drawn.

The swordsman unleashed a flurry off three quick blows on the staggered monster, sending its HP bar down to the end. There was a few seconds of delay before the Possessed Armour exploded into particles and Chrome claimed the reward from the battle.

"Nicely done," Arcadia said with a warm smile, putting her axe away.

"Thanks, but I really don't think you needed to switch there, you could have killed it easy," Chrome said, sheathing his sword.

"Hey I just gave you free Col, quit complaining."

"I'd rather not, I'm in a complaining mood this morning."

"I can see that."

As the two players proceeded through the dungeon, the events of Chrome's dream ran through his mind several times. He had opted not to tell Arcadia about it since she had featured in it. He figured she'd throw a fit if she knew she was getting killed off in his dreams. He had no idea who his other party member had been in the dream, he didn't recognise him and he definitely had no idea who their attacker was.

Chrome was worried that perhaps the event quest in December that had been announced may be the time he saw in his dream. His and Arcadia's goal was to reach at least level fifty by then, maybe it would be best for him to push it to sixty, he thought to himself. They had three months after all.

"Hey, Chrome, we're here," Arcadia said, snapping Chrome out of his trance. The swordsman shook his head quickly and Arcadia tilted her head a little. "You okay there?" she asked.

"Perfectly fine, let's do this," Chrome said, placing his hand on the door to the boss room. He looked to Arcadia and the two nodded to each other, proceeding in.


	3. Chapter 2

**Note: Since this fanfic is obviously going to feature quite a bit of combat, my characters are going to be using skills. I will warn you all now that most of the skills my characters will use will be ones of my own creation. **

**Another quick note, with the Gundam Seed fanfic I wrote, a lot of people mentioned that I didn't feature many of the series' characters for long periods of time. This fic will be the same. The characters from the anime may make short appearances but it is unlikely that any of them will become main characters who are present all the time. I have plans for one recurring character but she won't be around all the time. **

**I hope you enjoy chapter**** 2!**

The door to the boss room creaked open and the two players were greeted by the room they had visited numerous times now to defeat the constantly respawning boss. Said boss was already in the room, which seemed odd to Chrome, normally it didn't show up until they went further into the frozen colosseum-like room. He quickly saw why it was there though. Scattered across the floor were several players that the boss monster called Frozen King was now approaching with his massive claymore.

"Arcadia, let's go!" Chrome called out, charging forward with his sword and shield ready.

"Right behind you!" the purple-haired woman called in response.

One of the fallen players called out something to Chrome but he wasn't listening, he was far too busy bludgeoning the ice covered king across the head with his shield. The Frozen King turned and swung his claymore at Chrome who had anticipated the attack and was already rolling to the left to avoid.

"Too slow frosty!" the sword and shield user remarked with a grin as he rose to his feet once more. The boss let out a loud groan and ran at Chrome, his iced over armour clinking and his tattered cape flowing behind him.

The heavy overhead swing came as no surprise to Chrome as he raised his shield and blocked it easily. He'd fought this particular boss enough times now to know its attack patterns. He checked the king's HP, he was down to his last bar, the other players had done pretty well but it was obviously their first time fighting this guy. Chrome delivered a quick thrust that chipped off a small amount of his enemy's HP before jumping back. "Switch!"

Arcadia charged forward, swinging her massive axe in a wide arc that cleaved into the Frozen King's back, sending the boss stumbling forward. "We're not finished yet!" Arcadia yelled, jumping into the air and bringing her axe down on the Frozen King's head. Both her and Chrome watched as the boss' HP gauge fell to zero and it was defeated, Arcadia receiving the last hit bonus.

"His helmet as usual?" Chrome asked, sheathing his sword.

"Unfortunately," she sighed, "I'll get his armour one of these days."

"What the hell did you do?!" a rapidly approaching voice snapped. Chrome looked up to see the group of players he had seen before approaching him.

"Well, pretty sure I just saved you all," Chrome commented, his hand moving towards the handle of his sword. He spotted a tattoo on the neck of each player. A skull with a sword through it. They were Death Gamers.

Death Gamers were a group of players who emerged when Aincrad was added to New ALfheim Online. Although a player was free to die in this new Aincrad, Death Gamers felt as though this tarnished what Sword Art Online had been. Any player who chose to be a Death Gamer played as though one would still die if their avatar was killed in-game. If they were killed by a monster, they would log out and instantly delete their account. Death Gamers made up approximately thirty percent of the players that played in Aincrad regularly.

Chrome really hated dealing with these guys, it usually went south pretty quickly. He had been the end of several Death Gamers since he started playing, he wasn't very popular amongst them because of it.

"You stole our kill! We've been grinding for a week to kill that boss and you came and killed it on us!" the young man Chrome assumed to be the leader said. Arcadia sighed, she knew where this was going.

"Stole your kill? Ha! I saved your sorry hides is what we did. If it wasn't for us, all five of you would be logging out and deleting your accounts right about now!" Chrome said, staring into the eyes of the spear user before him. "Seriously, all of you DGamers are so uptight."

"You… I'll cut you down right here!" the spearman yelled.

"Go right ahead, I'll just respawn back in town. Doesn't bother me."

"Kotaru, maybe we should just drop it. He did allow us to keep playing after all…," a dagger user in the back of the group said.

"Shut it Haiden! This guy pisses me off. You know who he is don't you? This guy is the D Hunter, Chrome!" Kotaru said, pointing a finger at Chrome.

"D Hunter huh…," Chrome said, raising an eyebrow with a half-smile. Arcadia let out a small sigh and took a few steps back. Things had passed the point of no return now. "Not a bad title, I can live with that I suppose," Chrome said with a dark chuckle.

"I'm gonna cut this guy down right now and teach him not to screw with the Death Gamers," Kotaru said, drawing his spear. Chrome casually drew his sword and stepped away from Kotaru a few paces.

"So how's this gonna go down? A duel?" Chrome asked, twirling his sword around in his hand. Kotaru charged forward with a roar and Chrome shrugged. "Guess not," he said, raising his shield to block the thrust. He watched as his opponent's cursor turned orange, now all of his own attacks would be regarded as self-defence.

Chrome stepped around the next few thrust attacks, batting the occasional one away with his large shield. He counted each attack as it came. Three, four, five, six. Now Chrome's sword clashed out, opening a stream of data in Kotaru's upper right arm. He watched his opponent's HP bar decrease slightly and jumped back as Kotaru's spear came at him in an arc.

"Stand still murderer!" the spearman yelled, lunging forth once more.

"Why? So you can stab me? How stupid do you think I am?" Chrome called out, jumping over a low sweep. "Seriously… the same attacks over and over again, I really don't know how you got this far up."

"Shut up!"

Chrome blocked yet another straight thrust with his shield. This was seriously getting ridiculous, he thought to himself. He sighed and jumped back, taking up a crouching position, his shield raised.

"Last chance Kotaru, surrender or I'll end this now."

"Like hell I'm gonna give up, and who said you could use my name?!"

Chrome shook his head and watched as Kotaru jumped into the air, aiming for a downwards stab. Just as expected. The blade of Chrome sword and his shield both turned purple and the swordsman took a deep breath. Kotaru came closer and Arcadia put her hand on her axe, watching his companions.

As Kotaru's face twisted in a psychotic grin as his spear came down. Chrome stood up and his next actions took but seconds. His shield intercepted the spearhead, batting the weapon to the side, leaving Kotaru defenceless as Chrome's sword came up in a devastating vertical arc, a trail of purple following the blade. As his Guardian Wave skill connected, Chrome watched as Kotaru's HP gauge sank down to the red and disappeared.

A look of shock crossed the spearman's face before his body exploded into pixels and he vanished. There was a gasp from the rest of his party as their hands went to their weapons. However a glance from Chrome and the sight of Arcadia drawing her axe was enough to end that train of thought before it could be finished.

"Arcadia, let's go. We're done here," Chrome said as he sheathed his sword and took a teleport crystal from his inventory. Arcadia put her axe away and did the same, scowling at the DGamers before raising it high.

"Teleport, Lindas," they spoke in unison. In seconds they were gone.

Chrome took a seat on a bench by the waterway running through town. Arcadia chose to stand on the small bridge to his left. The two stood in silence for a few minutes before Arcadia decided to speak.

"How many does that make now?" she asked.

"I've lost count. I wouldn't be surprised if I start getting hunted soon," he replied.

"Do you honestly have to kill them every time?"

"I give them a fair chance to surrender, it's not my fault that they're too insane to accept it. I'm not responsible for the actions of those people, their faults belong to them alone."

"This is why I'm your only adventuring partner isn't it?"

"No, you're my only adventuring partner because I haven't found a way to make you leave yet." The two smiled slightly at the comment. "Dammit… I really don't wanna go to school tomorrow," Chrome groaned, looking up at the sky.

"Well fake sick and we can grind all day," Arcadia said with a huge grin. She was far too eager for that to happen, Chrome thought.

"Not a chance. I'm not giving you reason to take more time off work. You're supposed to be a role model you know?"

"Hey! I am a perfectly good role model when it comes to my job."

Chrome couldn't help but laugh. After a few seconds of pouting Arcadia joined in. The two spent a while talking idly before Arcadia decided to log out. The two said goodbye and Arcadia headed off to the inn so she could leave. Chrome on the other hand figured he might as well go and level some more, it was only just past lunchtime in the real world after all.


	4. Chapter 3

After spending two hours traversing random dungeons, Chrome eventually returned to Lindas. He stretched as he reached the bridge he and Arcadia had spoken at earlier, leaning on the edge and staring at the running water below. Even though he wasn't the kind of person to have a large group of friends, he still felt rather bored by himself. Odd as she was, Arcadia was a good person to quest with.

Chrome opened his menu and looked down at the Col he had amassed. He'd obtained quite a bit over the last few weeks of excessive grinding with Arcadia, more than enough to buy a small house on a lower floor like the one he was on. It would make sense for him to buy a house here in Lindas. He always came to this floor for the blacksmith he used and it was always where he met Arcadia anyway. Having a house would save on constant inn costs as well.

"Why not," he said to himself, standing up straight and stretching. He left the bridge and headed into town. A few minutes later, over half of Chrome's money had been spent on a two bedroom house on the outskirts of Lindas and some basic furniture to decorate it.

"Well, that was easier than expected," he said as he arrived at this new home. It was a quaint little building, made of brick with a small grassy yard and a thatched roof. A wooden fence ran around the perimeter and a stone path ran up the wooden door of the building. Chrome couldn't help but smile as he strode to the door and opened it.

The inside of the building was as simple as the outside with a small entrance hall leading into the entrance room. Of one side of that was the kitchen and off the other was a thin hallway leading to the bedrooms and bathroom. Chrome opened his menu and unequipped his armour, cape and weapon, remaining in his tunic, pants and boots as he walked through his house.

"Alright then… guess I need to decorate the place," he said to himself, opening his inventory.

By the time Chrome finished decorating, he glanced down at the time, it was almost 5pm. "Man that took a while," he groaned, laying down on his new bed. He was honestly surprised that Arcadia hadn't come back online while he'd been furnishing. She had a habit of leaving to do work then coming back an hour or so later when she got bored.

He reached up into the air above him and opened up his equipment screen. It had been a few days since he'd gotten his equipment restored and it's durability to about half. He had some time to kill so he figured he'd go visit the blacksmith if they were open. He re-equipped his cape but opted to leave his pieces of armour and weapon off as he walked through town.

The sun was going down now and a warm orange glow enveloped the virtual world, a gentle breeze swirling through the streets. He reached the familiar smith shop, its large wooden waterwheel turning on the side, a dull creak following each movement.

A small bell jingled as Chrome pushed open the door and walked inside, a warmth engulfing him as he did so. Behind the counter at the far end of the store he spied the familiar pink haired blacksmith in her usual red dress and white apron.

"Well if it isn't Chrome, it's been a few days" she said with a warm smile, leaning on the counter as she recognised her regular customer.

"Hi Liz. Yeah, I've been pretty busy lately levelling with Arcadia and getting ready for the December event," the sword and shield user explained, looking at several newly forged swords on one of the wall shelves.

"That sounds like you two, if I didn't know any better I'd say you two were going out," Lisbeth said with a sly smile. Chrome's eyes went wide and he almost fell into the shelf.

"W-what?! God no!" he exclaimed, turning to face the now laughing blacksmith.

"Man both of you react so well," Lisbeth said with a huge grin. Chrome scowled at the smaller girl who merely covered her mouth with her hands and sniggered. After a few seconds of regaining her composure, Lisbeth spoke again. "So, what brings you here today?"

"I just need my equipment repaired and I was thinking of buying a new sword."

"Well as you can see there I just made a new batch. Feel free to have a look while I go work on your stuff." Chrome nodded and handed over his armour and sword to the pink haired mace user before browsing through her swords.

At first, nothing caught his eye, but his gaze eventually found something on one of the higher shelves. He reached up and grabbed the sword in question, bringing it down. The weapon was housed in a grey sheathe that looked slightly longer than the one for his current sword. The handle and hilt of the weapon were nothing fancy either. The handle was wrapped in a cool, white leather and the hilt was a curved piece of silver steel.

Chrome wasn't sure what about the sword caught his eye but he slowly unsheathed the weapon. His eyes became fixed on the beautiful blade that was revealed as he did so. As he had thought, the deep purple blade was slightly longer than his current weapon. It shone dully in the orange light that filtered through the window, the silver edges more so than the rest.

Chrome was mesmerised by the sword, bringing up the weapon's details to find out more about it. "Amethyst Edge," he muttered to himself, noting its name. It was definitely an improvement over his current sword, boosting his strength by quite a bit. The price made Chrome cringe a little however. He could afford it, but it would cost over half his remaining money.

"Oh well… I can always borrow some extra Col off Arcadia for healing items if I need it," he said with a grin, sheathing the sword and walking over to the checkout. He pressed the small bell and Lisbeth returned from the smithy out back.

"Oh, find something you like?" she asked, glancing down at the sword on the counter.

"Yeah, this Amethyst Edge. It's a nice sword," Chrome said, running his fingertips along the cool sheath.

"I'm glad you like it, I only forged that one this morning. I'm really happy with the way it turned out." Chrome paid for the sword, cringing a little as his money vanished. "Oh, your armour is all done too," Lisbeth said, transferring the equipment back to Chrome and receiving another payment.

"Thanks a lot Liz," he said with a smile, equipping everything once more. His gauntlets and spaulder seemed to have a new sheen to them as he studied them. He glanced down at the new sword on his hip and at the large shield on his left arm. "Well I'm logging off for the day, thanks again!" Chrome called out with a wave as he left the shop and returned to his house.

He had to admit, it felt strange not walking into an inn at the end of his session. He smiled a little and removed his armour and weaponry, laying down on his bed. "See you tomorrow Chrome…," he muttered to himself as his eyes closed.


	5. Chapter 4

When Ren's eyes opened, he was not greeted with the scene he expected. He had expected to remove his AmuSphere and find his room steeped in darkness but instead, a warm light was filtering through the window next to his bed. "You've got to be kidding me," he groaned, realising he must've fallen asleep right after logging out of ALO, not even removing his AmuSphere.

He sat up and stretched his stiff body, rubbing his neck slightly to try and loosen it. His tired eyes flickered over to the clock on his desk, it was 6:26. He still had over half an hour before he'd need to start getting ready for school but he knew if he went back to sleep he'd probably wake up late.

He swung his legs over the edge of his bed and got up. He regretted the decision immediately, swaying on the spot and almost falling, having to grab his desk to stay upright. He quickly showered and got himself some breakfast, sitting down on the porch to eat it, the warm morning air whipping around him.

"So, what level did you get to last night?" a deep voice asked from behind Ren as he ate. The young man turned with his spoon sticking from his mouth to see his father coming through the sliding door.

"Oh hey Dad. I hit level thirty-two before I stopped grinding," Ren replied, turning back to the yard. His father, Shinji, sat down next to him, resting his briefcase on his lap.

"Only thirty-two? I thought you would've gotten higher pulling an all-nighter like that," Shinji Hikari said, rubbing his stubble.

"I wasn't playing all night. I just fell asleep with my AmuSphere on."

"Well that was intelligent wasn't it?"

"I'm your son remember."

"That you are, except in my day I fell asleep with a controller in my hand, not some sci-fi visor on my head." The two laughed at the comment. Shinji looked down at his watch, sighed and rose to his feet. "Well I'm off to work now kiddo, make sure you get to school on time," he said as he stepped off the porch and left the house.

Ren groaned and took his empty cereal bowl inside. He really didn't want to go to school. He was half tempted to accept the offer Arcadia had made the day before and spend the whole day at home playing ALO but he knew he couldn't. Unfortunately being a second year high school student meant having to attend regularly.

He grabbed his bag and left the house, locking the door behind him. He got on his bicycle and made his fifteen minute trip to school.

Ren slumped into his seat for homeroom, all but phasing out the chatter around him. His mind wandered like it always did, thinking of the adventures he would have in Aincrad that afternoon. His thoughts were interrupted by a tap on the shoulder.

"Yo, Ren, morning," a male voice said, causing Ren's head to turn.

"Oh Tatsuya, morning," Ren said in a rather bland tone. Tatsuya was one of Ren's close friends from school. He was a taller and rather well built young man, being on the school soccer team. Tatsuya sat down in the chair next to Ren and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt to his elbows.

"You playing ALO this afternoon?" Tatsuya asked, taking his notebooks from his bag. Ren nodded in response. "Awesome, I don't have practice today so I can play too. You and Arcadia are probably way higher than me now huh?"

"Well I'm level thirty-two now, I think Arcadia is on thirty."

"That's not too bad I guess, I'm still on twenty-eight."

"Good morning class," a rather droll female voice called out from the classroom door. Tatsuya and Ren watched as a woman entered the room with a yawn and walked to the front of the class.

"Um, Miss Hidenori, are you okay?" one of the female students called out.

"Me? Oh I'm fine. I was just up late… working on lessons for the week" the teacher said, averting her eyes from the class. Ren put his face in his palm and a huge grin spread across Tatsuya's face.

"That's our Arcadia," Tatsuya said quietly. "Did you two play till late?"

"We played till about lunch then she left so she must've gone back on after I went to bed."

"So, everyone just open up your notebooks and go over your notes from last week, you'll have a test at the end of this week," Miss Takiko Hidenori instructed, sitting down at her desk and resting her head on her arms. Ren shook his head with a small smile, opening up his notebook.

The day went by relatively fast and before Ren knew it, the bell signalling the end of school was ringing out through the buildings. Ren packed his things into his bag and stood up, waiting for Tatsuya to do the same. Miss Hidenori approached the two boys as they packed everything away, glancing around to make sure most of the class had left before speaking to them.

"Hey, you two are going to be on today right?" she asked in a hushed tone.

"Yeah, how come?" Ren asked, leaning back on his desk slightly.

"I heard rumours that a super rare mob has spawned down on floor nine. Apparently it's only around for two days and it'll only spawn for a player or party once."

"Which means it probably has an awesome drop," Tatsuya said, his eyes lighting up a little as he rubbed his chin. "You up for taking it on Ren?" he asked, looking at his friend. Ren nodded in response and Miss Hidenori grinned.

"Awesome! Meet in Lindas as usual?" she asked.

"Yeah. I have a house there now so we can meet there," Ren said. Tatsuya and Takiko nodded and the three went their separate ways.

As Ren returned home he grabbed a quick snack, a drink of water and then headed into his room. He closed the door behind him and booted up his computer. Once it was all loaded he laid down on his bed with his AmuSphere on.

"It's been a while since Tatsuya had gone anywhere with us, but he should be ok. He could just hang back and then switch in when the enemies had been weakened a bit," Ren muttered to himself. "Link start!" he said and his surroundings vanished.


	6. Chapter 5

**Well this chapter ended up being far longer than I expected. I hope you're enjoying the fic so far, feel free to leave any comments on the fic or you can PM them too me. **

**Enjoy chapter 5!**

Chrome's eyes slowly opened and he slid out of his bed, his bare feet thudding softly on the wooden floor. He gazed around his bedroom and smiled a little as he stood up and equipped everything he needed to. As he stepped out into the hallway there was a knock on the front door. He strode across the house and opened the door to find a familiar male figure on the other side.

His green eyes peered into Chrome's home and his blue ponytail fluttered about in the wind. He was dressed in a pair of grey slacks and a long-sleeved black shirt. His armour consisted of a hardened leather breastplate with matching arm bracers and boots. Hanging from his left hip was a long dagger in its sheath. Above his avatar was a name that read Kotetsu.

"Man, it's been a while since I've been on huh?" Tatsuya's avatar asked as Chrome invited him inside.

"Over a week," Chrome replied.

"Yeah that sounds about right. Your new gauntlets and spaulder look cool," Kotetsu said.

"Thanks, I got them made for me."

Kotetsu took a quick look around the house before sitting down on the three-seater couch that Chrome had placed in the lounge room. Chrome himself sat in one of the armchairs.

"Man, this sure beats hanging around at inns. All this must have cost a fair bit, I mean this floor is almost halfway up Aincrad," Kotetsu commented, spreading out on the couch.

"It cost over half the money I'd saved up. I'm almost broke now after getting a new sword as well," Chrome explained. Kotetsu raised an eyebrow at the mention of a new weapon and Chrome got to his feet, drawing the Amethyst Edge.

"Now that my good sir, is a nice sword," Kotetsu said with a nod of approval. There was another knock at the door and Chrome sheathed his sword. "That would be our teacher I believe." The two walked to the door and Chrome opened it to reveal Arcadia standing on the other side.

"Good afternoon children," Arcadia said, entering the house. The three entered the lounge room with Arcadia sitting on the long couch with Kotetsu. "This is a nice place."

"Thanks. So tell us more about this rumour you heard," Chrome said, looking at Arcadia. The older woman nodded and began to talk.

"I checked my source again before logging in and apparently the rumour has been confirmed by at least two parties so there's a good chance it's legit. From what I've heard it seems to be a wolf type enemy with three goblin types assisting it," Arcadia explained.

"So four enemies in total… do you think we can really do this with just three of us?" Kotetsu asked, rubbing his chin.

"Apparently if you can split the enemies up they're not overly difficult to beat. So if I handle two of the goblins, you handle one and Chrome keeps the wolf busy we should be able to pull it off."

"Sure… give me the main one," Chrome commented.

"Well you are the highest level out of the three of us," Arcadia said. Chrome shrugged and leaned back into his chair.

"So where exactly does the group spawn?" Kotetsu asked.

"It's a cave-like dungeon on floor nine. A suitable home for such monsters I suppose. Well enough chit-chat, shall we get going before the rumour spreads more and the area is flooded with people?" Arcadia asked, getting to her feet. Chrome and Kotetsu both nodded and the former invited the other two into a party.

The group left Chrome's house and made their way to the teleport gate plaza. From there they went all the way down to floor nine and eventually arrived at the entrance to the cave dungeon.

"Man, that took forever," Kotetsu groaned, leaning against the mountain the cave led into.

"Still a ways to go yet. Being on floor nine though, this dungeon shouldn't be too deep," Chrome said, drawing his sword and walking inside. Kotetsu and Arcadia drew their weapons and followed along behind.

The monsters in the cave were no challenge for the party as they made their way to the deepest section of the cave. As they arrived at the massive stone door to the boss chamber, Chrome and his allies stopped, their weapons ready. Leaning against the door was a figure dressed in a full set of hardened leather armour, a purple cape hanging from his neck. His arms were folded over his chest and a katana hung from his hip. Chrome looked over him quickly but he was unable to see the DGamer mark.

"Yo, why're you just standing there?" Kotetsu called out, walking towards the figure.

"For the same reason you would be had you all arrived before me," the swordsman replied in a level voice. His sapphire eyes opened and we stood up straight.

"What do you mean?" Arcadia asked, putting her axe on her back.

"I'm going to guess you can't enter the room without a party of at least four people," Chrome said, looking over at the stranger.

"That would be a correct guess," he replied.

"So you've just been standing around here waiting for three people to arrive?" Kotetsu asked, raising an eyebrow. The swordsman nodded. "Wow… you clearly have nothing better to do with your time," Kotetsu said with a grin.

"Say what you will, would you be willing to allow me to join you? You can call me Vakross," the caped swordsman said, brushing long purple hair from his eyes.

"Well we're not getting in if we don't so I can't see a problem with it," Chrome replied.

"I take it whoever kills the boss gets the drop?" Vakross asked. Chrome nodded as he sent him a party invite. "That's fair enough. I joined your party so I'll take on one of the goblins to begin with, that should be fair."

"Right. Kotetsu, you and Arcadia handle the other two while I keep the wolf busy then," Chrome instructed, placing his hand on the stone door. There was a few seconds of delay before it opened. The four players proceeded in and the door closed behind them.

The scene that greeted them was not what they had expected. They had gone from narrow, stone corridors to a large circular cavern with a floor covered by sand. Random patches of grass and foliage could be seen growing around the cavern. The roof was wide open, allowing a view of the clear sky as the afternoon sun shone in. A small campfire was burning in the centre of the area with three small, green creatures sitting around it. Behind them lay a massive black shape, its chest slowly rising and falling.

The three goblins spotted the newcomers almost immediately and jumped to their feet, screaming in some incomprehensible language and brandishing pitchforks. Their cries caused the wolf to awaken, standing up on only its hind legs, easily being several metres tall. Chrome's eyes widened and he blink a few times, staring at the massive creature that was called The Black Fury. Its four HP bars came into view and it let out a mighty roar.

"Yeah so, you have fun with that!" Kotetsu called far too eagerly in Chrome's opinion as he charged towards one of the Cavern Gobs. Arcadia gave Chrome a tap on the shoulder as she brandished her axe and ran at another. Vakross strode past Chrome, drawing his katana and twirling it around in his hand.

"Such supportive allies," the blue haired young man said.

"Bunch of traitors more like," Chrome muttered as he ran towards the wolf. There was a hiss as he drew the Amethyst Edge. "Bring it on your overgrown fur ball!" Chrome roared, leaping into the air.

Arcadia's axe caught the sunlight as it tore through the air, smashing into the Cavern Gob. The smaller creature staggered back for a moment, a good chunk of one of its two HP bars depleted. Arcadia and the monster exchanged blows a few times, bringing her HP down to almost half. A thrust attack from the goblin caused her to drop into the yellow. "Tough little critter, aren't you?" she said, jumping back. The Cavern Gob only had a little over a quarter of its second gauge left, Arcadia knew this next attack would finish it.

The green monster leapt into the air with a psychotic squeal and Arcadia grinned. She pulled her axe back, holding it out to her side. The whole weapon began to glow green as her Full Smash skill began to trigger. She swung her axe with all her strength and the large weapon smashed into the small monster. There was a second where nothing happened and then the Cavern Gob was thrown into the wall of the area and shattered into pixels. "Alright, time to help Chrome," Arcadia said as she claimed her rewards.

Kotetsu was crouched low with his heavy, black bladed dagger held high as the Cavern Gob circled him. He could hear it sniggering every now and then as it hopped between its small legs. As the monster came close, the blade of Kotetsu's dagger went purple and flicked out, his Viper Bite attack striking home. The goblin hissed and tried to run but Kotetsu quickly followed up with a flurry of quick and precise blows, each one eating away at his opponent's HP gauges.

"You're nothing!" Kotetsu called out, dragging the heavy blade of his dagger across the goblin's body. The bright stream of data opened up from the attack bled out pixels as the dagger user rammed his weapon into the open wound, ending the Cavern Gob's life. "Heh, I've still got it," Kotetsu said with a grin, running towards The Black Fury.

"You think you've got a chance against me? That's cute," Vakross remarked as his opponent sped towards him, pitchfork in hand. Vakross took the attack head on, his HP going down slightly before he followed up with a fast, upwards slash. Having caught the Cavern Gob off guard, the attack took off almost half its first gauge. A quick double slash depleted that gauge and a powerful arc took away almost half of the second. The goblin launched several last ditch attacks that depleted a decent amount of Vakross' HP but a final combo from the swordsman ended the fight.

"Weak," he said, turning and heading for the wolf.

Although he'd thought that he would weaken The Black Fury a good amount before his allies came to assist him, the reality for Chrome had been quite different. He had spent most of the fight so far dodging and blocking the boss' attacks while only managing to launch a few counterattacks.

Chrome panted as he leapt back now, almost half of his HP gone and the durability of his shield reduced significantly. He tightened his grip on his sword and charged forth. He raised his arm, a swipe from The Black Fury glancing off his shield. Two loud roars resounded through the cavern as Chrome drove his sword blade into the wolf's thigh. He pulled it out and quickly turned his sword around, holding it backwards as the blade went golden.

Arcadia quickly scanned the situation, there was no way Chrome would have enough time for his attack to trigger. The Black Fury was already preparing to attack. "Cover him!" the axe-wielding woman yelled, leaping into the air and striking the monster's upper arm.

"Roger that!" Kotetsu called, his high speed stat enabling him to reach The Black Fury swiftly and unleash a barrage of quick strikes upon its leg. Vakross moved without a word, getting around behind the boss and bringing his sword down, severing the end of its tail. There was a loud roar that echoed through the cavern and then Chrome attacked.

"Raising Burst!" he yelled out, leaping up The Black Fury, delivering a powerful blow with each jump. A series of long gashes opened along the body of the boss, data spewing from them as Chrome leapt from the beast's chest and came face-to-face with it. "Bite me," Chrome said as his final attack began. He spun his sword around above his head several times before driving it down between the eyes of his opponent.

As Chrome pulled the sword free, he fell to the sand with a heavy thud, watching as the last of the boss' HP fell away and the creature exploded. The repeated attacks from Chrome's allies as he scaled The Black Fury's body had been enough to cause his skill to finish it off. He glanced up at his HP gauge, it was just over a quarter now, not too bad he thought to himself.

Arcadia, Kotetsu and Vakross approached Chrome after receiving their shares of the spoils. "Get anything good for killing it?" Kotetsu asked. Chrome nodded, bringing up his menu.

"Problem is, it's not something I use though," he said, making a screen of his inventory public. Arcadia's eyes went wide and he could have sworn he saw her drool a little when she saw the name Axe of Fury. A small smirk came across the sword and shield user's face. "I'll trade it to you when we get out of here."

"Well thanks for letting me join you guys, that fight was fun," Vakross said, heading for the cavern door.

"Hey, do you mind if I add you to my friends? I wouldn't mind going on a quest with you again sometime," Chrome called out. Vakross gave a thumbs up, taking out a teleport crystal with his other hand as he left the cavern. As Chrome looked away, he vanished.

"Well let's get back to your place, I need a rest," Kotetsu groaned, ambling towards the door. Chrome nodded agreement and the three exited the cavern.

"Teleport, Lindas!" they all called, holding their teleport crystals high.


	7. Chapter 6

By the time the party returned to Chrome's house the sun was beginning to set and Lindas was bathed in orange light. A warm wind blew through the town and birds chirped quietly in the trees. Chrome sat with his feet up on the table in front of his arm chair reading the latest newspaper while Kotetsu and Arcadia sat on the couch. Kotetsu sipped a cup of tea that Chrome had prepared while Arcadia was almost drooling over the Axe of Fury that Chrome had traded her.

Her hand rang along the rune engraved handle up to the large black blades curving out from the end. Although the axe lowered her speed stat slightly it had greatly increased her strength, a trade-off Arcadia was more than happy with.

"Well this is interesting," Chrome murmured as he flicked to the final page of the newspaper. The eyes of his comrades turned to him, curious. "It seems that a large group of DGamers were going on a boss raid on floor forty-nine so we could go to fifty, they were all wiped out before they even got to the dungeon except for one of them."

"Wait what? Were they just weak?" Kotetsu asked.

"Apparently they were all level fifty-five or higher. There's no monsters on floor forty-nine strong enough to do that," Chrome replied.

"Maybe it was a group of player killers," Arcadia suggested.

"The report from the survivor said it was a single opponent, he was in the back so he didn't see them." Chrome rubbed his chin as he looked over the article again. It would have to have been an insanely high level player, he thought to himself.

"Well I guess it's less of them for you to hunt," Arcadia said, poking her tongue out at Chrome.

"Wait what?" Kotetsu said, looking at his teacher.

"Oh right, you weren't there. Apparently Chrome here is now the D Hunter."

"Well I suppose he has killed a fair few of them."

Chrome ignored the conversation going on around him, rubbing his chin a little. His mind flashed to the dream he'd been having. The figure him, Arcadia and the other person had been up against was indeed powerful. Surely something from a dream couldn't really happen though, right? He couldn't stop the sick feeling in his stomach though.

"Yo Chrome, you AFK?" Kotetsu said, waving his hand in front of Chrome's face. The sword and shield user snapped out of his trance and shook his head.

"Sorry, was just thinking," he said.

"I wonder if we'll ever be strong enough to go on a boss raid with the clearers," Arcadia said to herself, leaning into the couch.

"If we keep up our levelling the way we have been, we might be able to," Chrome said.

"We're still levelling for the December quest right?" Kotetsu asked. Chrome nodded in response. "Man, I'm really gonna have to get on here more so I don't fall behind you guys."

"Well, the holidays do start after this week so we'll have every day to come on and grind," Arcadia pointed out.

"Speaking of the holidays, there's a whole day event on the first day of it," Chrome mentioned, picking up the newspaper again. "Apparently it's unlike anything the game has done before. From what it says here it looks like they'll be turning off the safety in the towns for twenty-four hours and any towns that sign up for the event will be sieged by monsters for the duration of the event. Depending on how many monsters the players in a town kill and how much of the town they manage to protect, EXP, Col and items will be awarded to every participant."

"That sounds… incredibly fun," Kotetsu said, an eager grin spreading across his face. "Is there a minimum amount of players a town has to have?"

"At least twenty apparently, and the difficulty is greater the higher the floor you participate on," Chrome replied. "So we could either go down onto a floor more suited to our level or we could do it here in Lindas and just play it careful. It says here that if a player is killed during the event they're eliminated for the rest of it. The servers will only be open to event participants for the twenty-four hours it takes place."

"So if we get killed we can't log back in and we won't get any of the rewards," Arcadia said as she took in all of the information.

"I bet heaps of the lower level players are just gonna camp out on floor forty-nine and get the bonus EXP without fighting any monsters. There's no fun in that though," Kotetsu said.

"Well it says here, to obtain the rewards, each player needs to kill at least ten monsters," Chrome explained.

"That's fair," Arcadia said.

"I reckon we should do it here in Lindas, we could probably get that Vakross guy to help and we could horde items here in your place," Kotetsu said, looking to Chrome. The swordsman nodded in agreement. It was a good plan and they still had a week to level up a fair bit.

"Alright, we'll sign up for the Lindas siege and dedicate the next week to grinding our levels and gathering healing items to store here. If all goes well and we all survive we'll probably get some really good rewards. Are you up for it Arcadia?" Chrome asked, looking to the older woman.

"Do you even need to ask?" she said with a huge grin.

"Alright, well I'm logging out for today, I'll see you guys tomorrow," Chrome said, getting to his feet. Kotetsu and Arcadia said their goodbyes, leaving the house as Chrome went to his room.

As Kotetsu and Arcadia left the house, the former spotted a figure quickly leaping the fence and running off down the road. "Hey, you!" the dagger user yelled, running off after them. His boots thundered down the stone pathway as the cloaked figure opened their menu and scrolled through it. "Don't you dare," Kotetsu growled, knowing what his target was doing. The cloaked figure turned with a twisted grin as he raised a teleport crystal. Just before he vanished, Kotetsu glimpsed something on his cheek. The DGamer mark.

"Who the heck was that?" Arcadia panted as she caught up to Kotetsu.

"I'm not sure, they were a DGamer though," Kotetsu replied, a troubled expression on his face.


	8. Chapter 7

Ren's eyes opened and he looked over at the time, the clock read 11:30PM. He eagerly climbed out of bed and took a sip from his water bottle. He and his friends had spent the last week levelling and stocking up on items for the twenty-four hour event that started in half an hour. Of course, players registered in the event could log in at any time during the duration and play but Ren, Tatsuya and Takiko had decided to log in as soon as the event started so they could bring down as many enemies as possible. Players were free to log in and out of the event as much as they wanted all day but should they fall in battle, they were unable to log back in until the event was over.

Ren downed several pieces of fruit and did a few stretches before sitting down on his bed. He had been looking forward to this all week and couldn't wait for the holidays to start. He had raised Chrome eight levels for the event, he knew Takiko had gone up more though. He shook his head a little, that woman really should act more responsible he thought. Ren laid down on his bed and slipped his AmuSphere onto his head. "Link start!"

Chrome slipped out of bed and donned his weapon and armour, glancing at the time on his HUD, 11:54, six minutes left. There was a loud announcement saying that any players not participating in the event would be logged out two minutes before it's commencement while those who were participating would be transported to the town they were signed up in. As Kotetsu had thought, the most players were in the town on floor 49 where the strongest monsters would be.

There was a knock on the door and Chrome opened it to find Arcadia and Kotetsu on the other side. Kotetsu now had a dark blue cloak on over a set of new light plate armour. A long, curved dagger hung on his hip. Arcadia had upgraded her green armour and the Axe of Fury Chrome had traded her sat on her back.

Chrome himself had also purchased new equipment. His leather boots had been replaced with steel ones and he had purchased a new, crimson cape that hung off his shoulder. He had also bought a new shield, one made of black steel with golden runes around the edge.

"So, we ready for this?" Kotetsu said with a slight yawn.

"Well I don't know about you two, but I am," Arcadia said, her hand on her axe handle.

"We're all clear on the plan right?" Chrome asked, looking between his two companions.

"Kill everything in sight, come back here to heal and log out when necessary right?" a voice asked from the open door. Chrome glanced over to see Vakross leaning against the frame.

"Sounds like a good rundown to me," Kotetsu said. Chrome nodded and the four proceeded to the lounge room of the house, putting a majority of their healing items inside a chest Chrome had bought, keeping a small stock to have during the fighting.

"Well let's get out there," Chrome said, heading for the door. His party left before him, Chrome shut the door as he left and drew his sword. The night sky quickly changed as soon as the clock hit midnight. The whole sky turned crimson and a loud commotion could suddenly be heard from multiple directions. "This way!" Chrome called, charging off to the side of his house.

The party arrived on the outskirts of town where they found a group of three rather agitated looking boars charging towards them. Chrome and Arcadia ran to the front of the group, blocking the charging beasts' attacks. Kotetsu leapt over the crouched Arcadia, delivering a downwards stab and then a series of quick slashes on one of the boars, killing it. Chrome used his shield to push one of the two remaining boars at Vakross while he handled the other.

The small skirmish was over quickly and the party grouped together back-to-back, scanning for more enemies. They repeated the process after finding and finishing each battle up until the first hour and a half had passed and they had each reached their quota of ten kills each. At that point they fell back to Chrome's house.

"Well, that didn't take too long," Kotetsu mused, twirling his dagger around in his hand.

"Yeah but that's the easy part done. Now we have to survive for the next twenty-two and a half hours," Arcadia said. She put the head of her axe to the ground and leant on the handle. Chrome was surprised how well they had faired against monsters quite significantly higher than them. Their teamwork had definitely paid off.

"Heads up," Vakross said, raising his katana. The other three followed his eyes to a large golem like creature ambling towards them, dust and moss crumbling off with each step. "Chrome, you and Kotetsu distract it while Arcadia and I attack from the flanks."

"Got it," Chrome said with a nod, charging off towards the large stone monster. Kotetsu ran nimbly behind him, darting out to the left when they got close and dealing a light blow to the golem's leg. Chrome leapt into the air with a spinning slash. The blade glanced off the monster's hard body and an unexpectedly fast swing of its arm sent the swordsman crashing into a small group of trees. He heard one of his allies call his name as half of his HP gauge depleted, the bar turning yellow.

"Don't stop, keep attacking!" Vakross ordered, his sword blade turning orange as he dealt a solid blow onto the golem. Arcadia's axe went green and she leapt into the air, dragging her axe up the golem's body as she went and then twirling the weapon around before driving it into the monster's head. A flurry of attacks from Kotetsu gave the two time to get away before the golem attacked.

"God damn this thing has some HP," Kotetsu groaned, doing a backflip to avoid a punch.

"The HP isn't the problem, it's the defence," Arcadia said as she held her axe ahead of her. Vakross moved next to her, gripping his katana with both hands as they watched the golem. Chrome groaned slightly as he rose to his feet in amongst the foliage.

"I think I'll camp here for a bit," he muttered, watching as his HP slowly began to rise. He crouched low with his shield up and his sword ready. He watched as the others darted around the golem, hitting where they could and dodging a majority of its attacks. He watched as Arcadia went in for a sweeping strike. The attack charged and hit home but her axe bounced off the much harder legs of the monster.

"Shit," Arcadia murmured as she was staggered for a moment. She watched as the golem's massive arm went up and then began to fall. Chrome dashed from the trees, sliding along the ground for the last metre. As he reached Arcadia, he rose to one knee and lifted his shield above his head. The impact that followed would have shattered his arm in real life, but it just reduced the durability of his shield to almost zero and depleted a chunk of his HP.

"Move it!" Chrome snarled as he held the golem's arm up, his shield weakening further. Arcadia moved to the side before running to Vakross as Chrome rolled away and let the golem's arm crash into the ground with a cloud of dust. Vakross took the chance to move in, his sword's blade going gold.

"Crescent Fall!" he yelled out. His body leapt up, striking the golem with a crescent moon shaped slash before he finished up with a swift downwards slash. "Kotetsu!" The dagger user charged in with a glowing weapon, delivering three powerful, pin-point thrusts into the golem's back, bringing its HP to zero. The Golem seemed to stagger for a moment before exploding into shards of light. The whole party slumped to the ground, panting.

"We can't rest here, we need to get back to the house," Chrome said, getting to his feet. Everyone agreed and hurriedly made their way inside Chrome's house before any more monsters could come.

"How's your shield? It took quite a beating," Arcadia said, glancing at Chrome's arm worriedly. He brought up the stats of the shield and shook his head.

"If I use it anymore I'll lose it," he said, removing the shield. He scrolled through his inventory and equipped the large oval shield he had been using until recently. He took a healing potion from the chest in the house and sipped on it slowly, as did Vakross and Arcadia. Kotetsu had avoided all damage during the fight.

"What's the plan now?" Vakross asked, leaning against the wall.

"After that little incident, hanging out here until the event is done might be a good idea," Kotetsu said.

"That's not going to happen. We decided to do this to help level up for December, we can't afford to just laze around and wait for the rewards at the end. We're going to get as much EXP as possible or die trying," Chrome said, clenching his fist.

"Someone's all worked up," Arcadia said with a laugh.

"I'm with Chrome. I'm not going to stand around and wait for the EXP to come to me. That doesn't sit right with me, I'll earn every point with my own blade," Vakross commented, his hand falling to the handle of his katana.

"Geez you guys are so serious," Kotetsu said with a shrug and a grin. "I was only messing around. Should we head back out there?" Chrome nodded, making sure his HP had fully restored. The four left the house again, the sounds of the various players fighting around town coming from all directions. Off to the left, Chrome saw a familiar pink-haired blacksmith club the head off a skeleton with her mace, flexing her arm in triumph as it died.

"Let's avoid the town centre, it's going to be full of players. Stick to the outskirts and pick off the new monsters coming in," Chrome instructed, pointing towards the rear of his house. Everyone acknowledged the instructions and followed along behind him. The sets of eyes never left the party once.


	9. Chapter 8

Chrome and his party patrolled the borders of Lindas, taking out any enemies that they came across along the way. By midday, they were beginning to get worn down. Each of the four had taken at least two breaks by that point but spending almost twelve hours fighting had worn them down mentally. The event had proven useful though, each of the party members had already risen a level.

Chrome danced around the sword swing from a skeleton before severing the undead creature's spine with his own sword. He blocked an attack from another with his shield before using said shield to knock its skull clean off. The swordsman watched as the skull bounced down the path then shattered with a smile of grim satisfaction. He turned to see Vakross perfectly execute a series of blows that finished off the weakened form of a much taller, club-wielding skeleton.

A wide swing from Arcadia's axe shattered three skeletons all at once, reducing them to a mixed pile of bones on the pathway before they shattered. Kotetsu ducked a horizontal swing from the sword of another. As he rose, he jammed his dagger between two of its ribs, shattering them before his palm flung through the gap and destroyed the enemy's spine.

The party regrouped and Arcadia glanced up at the time on her HUD. She muttered a curse before turning to the others. "Sorry, I have to log out, I'm expecting a delivery soon," the teacher said. Chrome nodded and she ran back to her student's house before logging out.

"What now? Should we continue fighting without her?" Vakross asked, looking around for any signs of movement.

"That's kinda risky isn't it? I mean Arcadia is our main powerhouse. If we came across something big we'd probably be in trouble," Kotetsu pointed out.

"True. I suppose it couldn't hurt to take a break till she gets back," Chrome said as he sheathed his sword. He immediately regretted the decision when a group of twelve players suddenly emerged from various hiding places around the party of three. Chrome's eyes flitted between each of them as he redrew his sword and noticed one thing they each had in common. A certain mark on each of their bodies. "DGamers…," Chrome muttered to himself.

"Well hello there, Death Hunter Chrome," the obvious leader of the group said, stepping forward. Chrome knew he was the leader simply from his equipment. The man that stepped forward was far better equipped than his allies. He wore a set of rather heavy looking black armour with purple trimmings. The spaulders of the armour had large spikes on them, as did the knees of his greaves. A long, red cape fluttered behind the man as he walked. His black hair was spiked and he kept a stubble of the same colour.

In his right hand was a long-handled war hammer, the end of which was shaped like dragon's head. On his left arm was a large triangular shaped shield, with his arm bent it pointed towards the ground, the straight edge towards the sky. His shield was a dull grey with the DGamer mark taking up most of the face.

"Rather extravagant looking aren't you?" Chrome said, locking eyes with the man. The DGamer smirked, his black eyes staring back at Chrome.

"My name is Kurogane and I lead the Death Gamer guild known as the Death Blade Alliance," the hammer user explained.

"Should I care? Cause I'm really not in the mood to."

"Arrogant, just as the reports explained."

"Arrogant? No, just really bored of you guys."

"Well don't worry too much about it, after this you'll be bowing down every time a DGamer comes within a mile."

Chrome took a moment to examine Kurogane further. His equipment was quite impressive looking, this meant there was a good chance that this guy was a higher level than him. Not to mention Kurogane had eleven companions while he only had two. No matter which way he looked at it, this was a very bad situation.

"So what is it you want then? Revenge?" Chrome asked.

"That's more or less the idea," Kurogane replied.

"You realise there's not much point to that right? Unlike you losers I'll just log back in if I'm defeated, I really don't care."

"We know that. But we have ways of making sure you know not to screw with the DGamers." Chrome watched as a smirk came across Kurogane's lips. There wasn't much choice here, they'd have to fight.

"Chrome," Vakross said, moving up next to the sword and shield user. "If you can hold him off, Kotetsu and I can probably make a big enough break in their lines for the three of us to escape."

"I don't plan on running away from this. You reap what you sow right? I caused this little problem to grow so now I need to cut it down," Chrome said in response.

"If you lose here you'll probably be kicked out of the event. From what I heard, PKing is allowed in this event so they won't become red players or anything, you'll just be logged out and eliminated from the event."

"What's the matter Vakross, are you scared of a challenge?"

"Hardly, in any normal situation I'd welcome this. But even I'm not stupid enough to throw away the rewards for all this just because of some stupid grudge these guys have." A grin spread across Chrome's face.

"I guess I'm just insane then," Chrome remarked, pointing his sword straight at Kurogane. The guild leader raised his left hand and his allies leapt into action. Chrome took barely a second to breathe before going into battle.

His shield deflected the thrust of a spear before he stepped towards his opponent. The Amethyst Edge flickered forward, opening a gash in the spear user's hip. Before the DGamer was able to use his spear again, Chrome spun on the spot, delivering a powerful downwards slash onto his opponent's arm, severing it just above the wrist. There was a short scream before Chrome delivered a lightning fast three-hit combo that ended the DGamer's life.

Kotetsu's eyes flickered between the two men approaching him with two-handed swords. A bead of sweat rolled down his face as he developed a strategy in his mind. He spun to the side of the first swordsman's attack, his hand flinging out from his right hip and sending three throwing darts into his opponent's stomach. The swordsman fell to the ground as paralysis overcame his body.

Kotetsu looked now to the second swordsman who charged at him. A simple backflip enabled him to dodge the slow sword attack. As soon as the dagger user hit the ground he was charging at his opponent. His dagger blade went red and Kotetsu hurled the heavy weapon into his opponent's chest. He then charged forward and went low with a sweeping kick. As his opponent began to fall forward, Kotetsu yanked his dagger free and then delivered a powerful palm strike to the swordsman's chest, sending him flying back as the Swirling Dragon skill ended.

Vakross stood calm with his eyes closed as a scimitar wielding player approached him with a twisted grin. He took a single deep breath as the player drew ever closer. The DGamer let out a maniacal laugh as his blade went yellow and he raised his sword high. Vakross' katana flickered green for a brief instant before delivering an upwards slash at impossible speed that sent the DGamer's scimitar spiralling away. Vakross continued with a three-hit combo that sent his opponent to the ground. When Vakross' katana pointed toward his opponent's throat, the DGamer let out a squeal and slithered away from the weapon before getting up and running away.

Kurogane watched as the three players dispatched his guild members with relative ease. "Freakin' idiots… I guess it's my fault for bringing the lower level members," he sighed, rolling his shoulders a few times. He glanced over at Chrome who was facing away him, locked in a battle with a DGamer wielding a battle-axe. Kurogane smiled and began his approach towards his target.

"Hold it!" a voice called out. The battle came to a halt and Kurogane looked around for the owner of the voice. He didn't have to look for long before a figure seemed to fall from the sky and land with a heavy crash in front of him.

The figure was down on one knee, holding a spear in front of him, the end on the ground with the point facing the sky. He wore a long, red scarf that whipped around behind him as he slowly rose. He was dressed in a set of sleek, cobalt armour that shone in the afternoon sun. His blonde hair was tied back in a long ponytail with a few strands dangling between his eyes. As he stood straight he flung his spear down and to the side dramatically as his free hand brushed his bangs from his eyes. "Totally worth it," he said with a content grin as his HP decreased slightly from his dramatic falling entry.

"Where the hell did you come from?!" Kurogane yelled, breaking the silence that had enveloped the motionless group of players. The newcomer raised his hand slowly and then dramatically pointed to a tall tree to the left. Kurogane's jaw dropped when he realised this spearman had fallen at least eight to nine metres. "Who the freakin' hell are you?"

"I am the blade that watches from the dark, the embodiment of justice that hunts down evil wherever it may lurk. Hunter of darkness, envoy of the heavens," the spearman spoke in a melodic tone. All eyes were on him now as his introduction carried on, that red scarf fluttering in the wind. "The name's Hakuya and I'm here to kick your cheating ass," he said with a grin. Chrome watched as Kurogane almost fell over from the cheesy routine.

"W-what… I don't even…," Kurogane stammered, trying to find the words he wanted. He let out an irritated growl and slammed his hammer into the ground. "What the hell do you want weirdo?"

"Like I said, you were about to do something cowardly and I decided to stop you," Hakuya explained, his body completely relaxed, no tension in his muscles.

"Cowardly? Do tell what I was doing," Kurogane said, watching the nonchalant spearman.

"You were going to ambush that sword and shield user there while he was distracted with your axe-wielding buddy there."

"So you thought you'd come interfere and try to stop me?"

"Yeah, I was pretty cool huh?" A huge grin spread across Hakuya's face.

"I'm gonna fucking kill you!" Kurogane roared, raising his hammer and swinging it straight down. There was a large crash and an explosion of debris as the weapon shattered the path where Hakuya had jumped away from.

"Swing a little faster next time, oh and get yourself some mints I think your breath dropped my HP a little," Haukya remarked as he landed in a squat. Kurogane let out another animalistic roar as he charged at Hakuya again. This time the spearman stepped to the side of his opponent's attack before smacking Kurogane on the head with the shaft of his spear.

"Cocky bastard!" Kurogane yelled, as he tried to strike Hakuya with his shield. The spearman jumped back with a small laugh, landing about a metre away. Hakuya chose this time to go on the offensive. He dashed forward and delivered four lighting fast thrusts towards Kurogane.

Even though the hammer user blocked the attacks with his shield, it was enough to stagger him for a few seconds. In those few seconds, Hakuya swept Kurogane's feet out from under him with his spear and then unleashed another volley of thrusts into the larger player's breastplate. Kurogane's HP depleted quickly and as the shaft of Hakuya's weapon smashed into his cheek, said HP bar fell into the red.

"So… is that it?" Hakuya asked, resting the point of his weapon on the bridge of Kurogane's nose. Kurogane growled and pulled out a teleport crystal, quickly muttering the name of a town and disappearing. His allies followed suit seconds later. Chrome and his party watched as Hakuya stood straight up, stretched his back and drove his spear into the ground. He turned to Chrome with a calm smile on his face and leant on his spear. "Well, that was fun wasn't it?"

"Who… are you?" Chrome asked, unsure of any intelligent things to say after witnessing such a display.

"Do we really have to go through that again? I'm pretty sure I was loud enough for you guys to hear," Hakuya commented, flicking his bangs from his eyes elegantly.

"S-sorry, I guess not," Chrome said, sheathing his weapon. Vakross and Kotetsu did the same, all three approaching their saviour.

"Those DGamers sure seemed to have it in for you, what'd you do to them?"

"I may or may not have killed a few of them."

"Yeah that'll do it."

"Thanks for saving us, I didn't even notice that Kurogane guy coming towards me."

"Well you seemed like you were in trouble and what kind of hero of justice ignores someone in need?" Hakuya asked with a grin.

"You're still going on with that hero of justice stuff?" Vakross asked, raising an eyebrow. "I can't tell if you're carefree or a complete idiot."

"Well whatever, I did my job, so I'm outta here I guess," Hakuya said, pulling his spear from the ground and putting it on his back. As he turned away from the party and began to walk away, Arcadia's voice rang out.

"Hey, are you guys okay?" she called, running towards them.

"Well hello," Hakuya said, spinning on one heel. Chrome didn't even have time to blink before the spearman was standing before Arcadia, bowing slightly. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance princess, you may call me Hakuya."

"Yeah, outta my way," Arcadia said, bashing Hakuya aside and running down to Chrome and the others. "What happened here? Are all of you okay?" she asked, glancing between her comrades.

"A group of DGamers attacked us led by some really strong looking guy named Kurogane," Kotetsu explained, looking around at what until just a few moments ago had recently been a battlefield.

"Where are they then? Don't tell me you fought them off," Arcadia said.

"We fought off a few, but that guy showed up and saved us," Chrome explained, motioning to Hakuya. Arcadia turned and the nonchalant spearman waved at her with a happy smile.

"You're kidding right? That guy took down a whole group of DGamers?" Arcadia asked.

"No, he just took out Kurogane, the rest fled when he did," Chrome said.

"Well as long as you're all okay."

"We're fine, don't worry."

The party watched as Haukya approached them, his arms folded. "Well kiddies, I've got monsters to kill and money to earn so I'll be seeing you all later," he said as he neared them. "Especially you," he said, grabbing Arcadia and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek before walking away, leaving the axe-wielding teacher bright red and completely stunned.

"Well, he was… interesting," Kotetsu said before the party began returning to Chrome's house.

"Next time I see him… I'll kill him," Arcadia scowled as she turned and walked away with the others.


	10. Chapter 9

Ren made his way back up to his room, a plate of food in one hand and a bottle of juice in the other. He sat the plate down on his desk as he sat down, checking his e-mails on his laptop. He began aimlessly searching the internet as he ate his food. He clicked through a few various websites as he quickly finished his late night snack and downed his drink. He looked down at the time in the corner of the screen, it read eleven-forty.

"Twenty minutes until the event ends… good, I need some sleep," Ren said as he picked up his AmuSphere and placed it over his eyes. He climbed down onto his bed and closed his eyes. "Alright, let's finish this," he said as he took a deep breath, "link start!"

Chrome slipped out of his bed and equipped his sword and shield. As he stepped outside the house, he was greeted by a scene quite different to when he logged out. A heavy rain now fell across Lindas and he could see his allies running towards his house. They all had their weapons drawn and Chrome could now hear yelling coming from the centre of town. He looked up into the downpour and could see something over the rooftops, it appeared to be a dragon.

"Chrome!" Kotetsu called out as he reached the swordsman before Arcadia and Vakross. "The event boss is here, we have to kill it to get the rewards," he explained, looking over at the dragon as it began to take flight.

"It's certainly… big. Any idea on a level?" Chrome asked, looking at the massive monster.

"I heard someone say it's about level fifty-five," Vakross replied, twirling his katana around in his hand.

"I guess that means we shouldn't try to fight it head-on," Arcadia said, a worried expression on her face.

"Hey, we didn't come this far just to chicken out on this boss fight did we?" Chrome said, drawing Amethyst Edge. He pointed it straight at the dragon and continued talking. "There's no point in just standing around and letting everyone else earn our rewards for us. We decided to do this event to help us level up, if we don't help to kill this boss then what was the point of these last twenty-four hours? We're gonna go in there and we're gonna kill us a dragon."

"Not a bad speech coming from you," Kotetsu said with a grin. Chrome looked at Arcadia and Vakross who both had eager expressions on their faces. Without another word, the party set off for the centre of town.

When they arrived, Chrome looked at the massive dragon that everyone was fighting. Its scales were a pale green colour and its golden eyes were full of fury. Sparks off electricity crackled around its mouth as numerous players battered the monster with attacks. Chrome glanced just above it now where he read The Storm Breather and saw its four HP bars, the first one only just approaching half empty.

As Chrome looked around at the players he could see a few familiar faces. Lisbeth was crouched down behind a large chunk of stone, most likely waiting for her HP to regenerate. He could see Hakuya standing atop a house, launching attacks at the creature's wing with several other spear-users. On the ground he could also see Kurogane and his guild, battering the dragon's lower body with attacks.

"I guess for now, everyone's fighting together," he murmured. "Alright everyone, Arcadia and I will take point, Vakross and Kotetsu, you two be ready to switch in." Chrome and Arcadia charged forward, their weapons ready as they joined the fray. The Storm Breather swung one of its massive claws, sweeping several players off a nearby rooftop, only one of them surviving the attack and fall. Chrome's sword lit up and he jumped at the dragon, delivering a spinning slash that tore open a small gash in the monster's scales.

"Right there!" Arcadia yelled, following up his attack immediately. She jumped into the air and delivered a devastating swing of her axe that collided with the wound Chrome made, increasing the size of the gash.

"Cover me!" Chrome yelled to Arcadia as he crouched down beneath the dragon. Arcadia moved forward, delivering a series of heavy strikes to The Storm Breather's leg. The blade of the Amethyst Edge went golden as Chrome switched it to a reverse grip, his skill charging slowly. He heard a sound as his skill finished charging and he quickly unleashed his Raising Burst. Chrome landed on the ground after his attack finished and watched a small amount of the dragon's HP decrease.

"Chrome! We can't have Kotetsu and Vakross standing around doing nothing, we need to be dealing as much damage to this thing as we can!" Arcadia called out, crouching low and using her axe to block the sweeping tail of the dragon. Chrome nodded his agreement and moved out of the frontlines with Arcadia, moving back to their other party members.

"Time for us to switch already?" Kotetsu asked, twirling his dagger around.

"No, Arcadia figured it'd be best if you guys were attacking this thing as well, that way we're all dealing damage," Chrome explained.

"Seems like a fair plan to me, I was getting bored anyway," Vakross remarked, watching as Arcadia sipped at a health potion. "Do we have a plan or is it just go in and start swinging?"

"Not dying is a pretty good plan don't you think?" Arcadia asked. Vakross shrugged and the party turned towards the dragon.

"I can't afford to take any direct hits so I'm gonna try and help out with attacking its wings!" Kotetsu called out as he latched onto a ladder on the building behind him and began climbing. Chrome, Arcadia and Vakross all turned back to the dragon and began running towards the massive beast.

A long battled ensued as the large group of players slowly chipped away at The Storm Breather's HP bars. There had been thirty-seven players in Lindas when the event started. It was now eleven fifty-five and twenty-five still remained. As The Storm Breather was reduced to half of its final HP bar, the group of players went into a frenzy. Everyone charged in and began attacking, strategy went straight out the window.

Kotetsu stood beside Hakuya, the two sending flurries of blows into the right wing of the massive green dragon. Kotetsu delivered a quick five-hit aerial combo and Hakuya unleashed the combo he had used on Kurogane earlier. The boss' wing was ridden with holes, data pouring out from each one.

"Is this guy ever gonna go down?" Hakuya asked, jumping back and leaning on his spear a little.

"We've only got five minutes before the event ends, we need to hurry this up," Kotetsu muttered, crouched low beside the spearman. He glanced down at the force fighting the dragon on the ground and his eyes went wide. The Storm Breather's mouth opened wide and fierce lighting crackled around in its open maw.

"Well that looks like a rather bad thing," Hakuya said, taking hold of his spear.

"Everyone, get out of there now! It's going to use a breath attack!" Kotetsu yelled, running to the edge of the roof. Hakuya repeated the warning after him, hoping people heard it. The dragon pointed its head down and the static gathering in the area between the rows of buildings where people were fighting was enough to make people's hair stand on end.

There was a huge flash of light before the whole corridor formed by the buildings was engulfed with electricity. Kotetsu and Hakuya heard many screams as players were caught in the attack and killed. Kotetsu's eyes went to the top corner of his HUD. Chrome, Arcadia and Vakross' HP were all down in the red. The dagger user let out a sigh of relief.

"No time to stand around, we've gotta kill scales there before he can do that again," Hakuya said, walking to the edge of the rooftop, the rain hammering down on him.

"Do you have a plan for that?"

"I do. I didn't want to use this but right now I don't have much choice."

Kotetsu watched as Hakuya opened up his menu. His plain spear disappeared and in its place, a weapon that made Kotetsu's jaw drop appeared. It was a spear that was easily longer than Hakuya was tall. The shaft of the weapon was a majestic purple with two thin strips of gold running along its length. The base of the tip was made up of two lengths of pale blue metal twisting around each other and then joining together in a long and incredibly sharp point. The whole weapon seemed to shine and Kotetsu could tell with a single glance that was one high level weapon.

"What the…"

"The legendary spear used by Odin himself, Gungnir." Hakuya twirled the spear around, the air seeming to shimmer wherever the blade went. "Let's kill us a dragon," Hakuya said, a serious expression on his face.

Chrome slowly rose to his feet with a groan, leaning on his sword. He looked at his left arm when his shield had been a few moments ago. At the moment The Storm Breather had unleashed its attack he had dove into a nearby alleyway with Arcadia, Vakross and four other players. They had all managed to survive but had still been caught by the edge of the attack. Chrome glanced up at the corner of his HUD as he took several deep breaths. They had four minutes left.

"We can't sit here, we have to finish that thing off now," he said, standing up straight.

"Are you nuts? If we go out there in this condition that thing will slaughter us!" one of the players in the alley said with a slight shriek.

"But if we wait for everyone to fully heal we're going to run out of time and all of this will have been pointless," Arcadia said, brandishing her Axe of Fury. Chrome looked to Vakross and the katana user nodded. The three ran out to the dragon, two of the other players with them following. Chrome could see Lisbeth as well as Kurogane and four of his guild members. On the roof he could see Kotetsu standing beside Hakuya wielding a spear that he didn't recognise.

"Let's end this!" Chrome roared, charging forward with his sword in both hands. The remaining players let out a roar as they all began attacking furiously, the clock slowly counting down.

Arcadia stood with Kurogane and Lisbeth, the three of them using their powerful weapons to strike at already weakened parts of The Storm Breather, dealing heavy damage and opening up large wounds. Kotetsu leapt from the building, rain beating down as he did several acrobatic movements, delivering numerous blows to the boss as he fell. Hakuya crouched down on the rooftop, his eyes closed and his entire spear glowing white. Chrome and Vakross leapt up the body of the massive, wounded dragon, delivering strong blows as they went.

The clock hit eleven fifty-nine and the dragon's final HP bar fell into the red. Hakuya's eyes flung open and he rose to his feet, his Gungnir shining a bright white. "Let's see if grinding my spear skill to a thousand paid off," he said with a slight grin. He ran along the buildings away from The Storm Breather before turning and leaping off. He turned in mid-air, facing the dragon with his spear held back. "Infinite Spears!" Hakuya roared, launching his glowing spear like a missile.

Gungnir travelled through the air at incredible speed, heading straight for the massive dragon. Chrome watched as the immense skill took place. Before the spear reached the dragon it seemed to explode into a mass of spears made of light. The dragon let out a loud roar as the spears tore through its body. Everyone could only watch in awe as the sixty-hit combo struck home and dropped The Storm Breather to zero HP.

The boss gave one final roar before it shattered into shards of data and vanished. Everyone except for the members of the Death Blade Alliance ran over to Hakuya, thanking and congratulating the spear user. There was an explosion in the sky and confetti fell from the sky as the rain stopped. The word congratulations appeared in the sky and all of the players could hear a fanfare playing.

"Well, I guess since I just cleared the event for us I should get a reward," Hakuya said with a grin. He spun slightly and held a rose out to Arcadia, brushing his bangs from his eyes slightly with his free hand. "A date with an angel such as yourself will more than suffice."

"Not a chance," Arcadia groaned, turning away. There was a roar of laughter as Hakuya was shot down. Chrome sheathed his sword his sword and looked up at the small rewards screen that appeared on his HUD. He watched his level jump up by six and his Col drastically rose. He clicked on the item that was listed amongst the rewards. It was called Shield of the Storm. Chrome figured he would check it out later.

He looked around between his allies with a calm smile on his face. It had been a gruelling twenty-four hours but it had definitely been worth it. Not only had his level greatly increased, he'd earned a ton of money and he'd made a strong new friend as well.

Fighting alongside powerful enemies with friends. Making new friends in the midst of battle. Living a life that he couldn't possibly enjoy in reality. It was times like these that really made Chrome love this game.

Ren slipped the AmuSphere from his head and stared up at the ceiling of his room. He closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. He was utterly exhausted. Images of his recurring dream flashed through his mind and it sent shivers up his spine. Even if the dream did come true at some point, he and the others were levelling up fast and now they had Vakross and Hakuya that they could call on. Everything would be fine… right?


	11. Chapter 10

Ren's eyes flickered open and he sat up with a rather overdramatic groan. He blinked a few times, rubbed his eyes and looked over at the clock. It was twelve-thirty in the afternoon. That was what he got for staying up for twenty-four hours straight with only a few small naps, he thought to himself. He slid out of bed and slowly made his way downstairs where his father was reading the newspaper on the couch.

"Huh, the dead can rise, what do you know?" Shinji remarked, looking over his shoulder to see Ren. His son ignored the comment and made his way over to one of the armchairs and slumped down into it. "Don't get too comfortable there kiddo, I need you to head down to the shops for me soon."

"What do you need?" Ren asked, looking over at his father curiously.

"Nothing too exciting, just some groceries. I'm just too lazy to go myself."

"The adults in my life are such great role models."

"I am a great role model, I'm awesome."

Ren shook his head and quickly returned to his room to get changed before coming back down again. He grabbed some money and a shopping list off his father and left the house. He slipped his hands into the pockets of his jacket, pulling the garment a bit tighter around himself. He let out a breath and watched it swirl around in front of him.

"I guess the winter settings for ALO will kick in soon too," he said to himself, his voice muffled by the jacket that was over his mouth. He broke into a steady jog as he went to the supermarket, keeping his body warm in the cold weather.

As he stepped into the supermarket, Ren's body was flooded with the warmth of the building's heaters and he let out a small sigh of relief. "First on the list, milk," he said to himself, unzipping the top of his jacket so that his mouth was revealed. He wandered through the store, placing the items he needed into a basket and heading for the check-out. Ren paid for his shopping and headed back outside into the cold with it.

He turned towards home and took two steps before he stopped. He had heard something nearby, the sound of someone screaming. Ren had never been the type to really stand up and protect people in danger in the real world, but still he ran towards the source of the scream. He stopped just short of an alleyway around the corner and peered into it.

He could see a girl probably around his own age being cornered by three older boys wearing kendo uniforms and carrying their shinai on their shoulders. Ren's eyes narrowed in on the three bigger guys, wondering what he could do. If this was ALO he'd just run in with his sword and shield and kick their asses no sweat. But this was the real world, if he did something stupid he could be seriously injured. These thoughts swirled in his head as he quietly lowered his shopping bags to the ground and took the lid of the trashcan next to him, holding it like a shield.

"Hey, leave her alone!" Ren called out, stepping into the alley. He instantly regretted it when the three taller boys armed with their shinai turned around. His tense arm held his makeshift shield as the three came towards him.

"Who the hell are you supposed to be? Her boyfriend?" the tallest of the three asked with a smirk. "Think you're playing her little knight with that thing?" he asked, pointing his shinai at the bin lid.

"The three of you should just back off and quit bothering her," Ren said. He really needed to shut up and stop acting tough. One of the other boys raised an eyebrow, stepping towards Ren.

"What are you gonna do about it kid? Run home and tell your mummy?" he said with a laugh. The three boys cracked their knuckles and took another step closer to Ren. He was really wishing he had Amethyst Edge right about now, heck, any sword would help.

"How about I drop you on your ass and embarrass you in front of your friends here," Ren remarked, a plan formulating in his mind.

"Ha, that I'd like to see!"

"Why don't you try me then? I'm stronger than I look."

"Your funeral twerp."

"Daisuke, don't kill him," the tallest boy said.

"Don't worry Goro, I won't beat him all the way to death," Daisuke said with a cruel smile. He took a quick step forward and raised his shinai above his head, swinging it down towards Ren.

"Here it comes," Ren whispered, taking a deep breath and letting instincts kick in. His right leg slid back and tensed as his left arm came up, his makeshift shield taking the powerful swing of his opponent. He felt the metal lid vibrate on his arm and the force of the impact sent a small amount of pain up towards his shoulder. "This is easier in ALO," he remarked, taking advantage of his opponent's surprise and stepping closer, pushing the shinai away with his shield.

"Cocky little punk!" Daisuke growled, kicking his foot out towards Ren's shin, making the smaller boy step back a few paces. He was forced back further as Daisuke rained heavy blows down on him, each barely being blocked by the bin lid shield that gradually became more and more dented. Ren counted as he was battered by a series of overhead blows.

"One, two, three… hyaa!" Ren yelled out, stepping forward again and pushing Daisuke's shinai up high. This time he didn't stop his movement, his right leg coming up. There was a loud squeal of agony when Ren's shin connected with Daisuke's groin. The bigger boy dropped to the ground and Ren quickly snatched up his shinai, knowing what would happen next.

"You little bastard!" one of the other two yelled out as they came towards him. Ren's confidence rose as he spun the shinai around in his hand, lowering his shield to a more natural level and taking up a battle stance.

"You're fighting D Hunter Chrome now, you don't stand a chance!" Ren called out, blocking a blow from Goro's friend and striking him hard in the ribs with Daisuke's shinai.

"Ichirou, watch it! This kid is better than he looks," Goro warned his friend, taking up a defensive stance. Ichirou however chose not to listen. He moved in again, ignoring the blow to his ribs and delivering a strong horizontal blow from the left. Ren lowered his shield just in time, blocking the attack. He spun on his heel and cracked his sword down on Ichirou's head. His opponent yelled out in pain and fell back, holding his head.

Ren turned to Goro and the two watched each other, both with serious expressions. Ren could see the girl huddled in the corner, not daring to run past the fight to escape. Ren tried his best to give her a small smile just before Goro charged in. Ren yelped in surprise at the sudden attack, not bringing the bin lid up in time and taking the blow on the left shoulder. He winced and cried out, staggering back.

"I'm gonna kick your ass for hurting my buddies pipsqueak, you're not getting out of here alive," Goro growled, attacking again. This time Ren was able to block it but the impact sent pain straight to his injured shoulder. He stumbled back and almost lost his footing as Goro swung again. This time Ren opted to use his own shinai to block. It took all his effort to hold off the attack of the much stronger boy.

Ren gritted his teeth and decided to charge in, it wall all or nothing now. He rammed his shield into Goro's stomach, winding the bigger boy as his own shoulder was hurt from the impact. The attack was followed up by repeated strikes to his opponent's leg, battering the boy's calf with his shinai over and over again. When Goro fell to one knee, Ren discarded his equipment and motioned towards the girl.

"Run for it!" he yelled out. The girl did as she was told without hesitation, running past Ren and out of the alley. Ren ran after her, leaving the three older boys in the alleyway. Ren grabbed his shopping bags as he left the alley and followed the girl. The two ran for a good three minutes before stopping on a footpath near a riverbank.

They walked down to the water and Ren fell on his back on the grass, his shoulder aching. "Are you okay?" the girl asked, looking down at the panting boy.

"Yeah I'm fine, you?" Ren asked, turning his head to her. The girl nodded and sat down.

"Thank you for saving me."

"I wish I could say it was nothing, but getting hit hurts a lot more in this world." Ren chuckled weakly as he spoke, looking up at the overcast sky.

"In this world?"

"Oh uh… I'm used to doing all my fighting in ALO. That stands for…"

"ALfheim Online."

"You know it?"

"I play it," the girl said with a small smile. "I guess that's why you fought so well." Ren sat up and looked at the girl. "I take it you use a sword and shield in there?" she asked with a small laugh.

"Yeah, turns out I fail epically using them out here though," Ren said with a weak smile.

"Aww you weren't that bad. You looked pretty heroic to me."

"Thanks." Ren blushed a little at the compliment, turning his head away.

"I'm Megumi. Megumi Junko," the girl said, holding out her hand. Ren turned back to her and held out his own hand, shaking hers lightly. He took a few moments to take in her appearance. Megumi had short, black hair, cut in a bob and a pair of kind, blue eyes. She was a little shorter than himself and was thinner.

"I'm Ren Hikari," Ren said with a smile.

"Well Ren, I thank you again for saving me from those thugs," Megumi said as she rose to her feet. She took a piece of paper and a pen from the pocket of her trackpants and quickly wrote something down, handing it to Ren. "That's my email address and ALO name, I hope we can meet in there!" she said with a warm smile before turning and walking away.

Ren to got to his feet and began walking home, making sure to stay well away from the supermarket. As he walked he glance down at the name written on the paper. Muko. Ren repeated the name to himself several times as he walked home.


	12. Chapter 11

The day after his real world fight, Ren had sent Megumi an email, seeing if she wanted to meet up in ALO and do something together. The latter had agreed and Ren had logged into the game as quickly as he could. He stood now as Chrome, the level forty-one sword and shield user. He waited in the teleport plaza of the town on floor thirty-eight, Yulan.

Chrome glanced up into the top corner of his HUD, she should be here soon, he thought to himself. He looked over to his right and saw a player walking around, looking from her left to her right, scanning the somewhat crowded plaza. She wore a diamond shaped shield on her right arm and from her right hip hung a rather deadly looking black mace. She was adorned in a dark brown set of light steel armour with a crimson coloured skirt covering her legs down to where her boots stopped. The female player's light blue hair was tied into a rather long ponytail that was bounced around by the breeze.

"Muko?" Chrome asked, approaching the mace-user.

"Oh, are you Chrome?" the armoured girl asked, quickly looking the taller avatar up and down.

"Yeah, that's me."

"Wow, you look so different in here!"

"So do you."

The two took a few moments to add one another to their friend's lists and then sit down on the edge of the plaza's fountain. The two of them sat in silence for a minute or so before Chrome finally decided to speak.

"So uh, what did you wanna do today?" he asked, looking over at the girl.

"I'm not too sure. I guess we could always go explore the dungeon on this floor," Muko replied, toying with her blue hair a little.

"What level are you? Will you be able to handle the dungeon on this floor?" Chrome asked, looking at the girl with a slightly worried expression.

"I'm level thirty-six so I should be fine. Besides, you're strong, you'll protect me right?" Muko gave a cheerful smile as she spoke. Chrome's cheeks went red and he got to his feet.

"Of course I will."

The two made their way to the dungeon of floor thirty-eight. It was one Chrome hadn't actually visited before. The entrance was a moss-covered stairway leading down into the earth, deep cracks ran down along the old stones. Chrome and Muko looked at each other, nodded once and then proceeded in.

The stairway went down for a few metres before levelling out into a wide corridor with old stone walls, again covered in moss like the stairs. Small plants could be seen growing out of the cracks in the walls and floor, the air was cold and musty. Chrome called up his menu and quickly navigated into his inventory. He clicked on the Shield of the Storm he had gotten from the twenty-four hour event and equipped it.

Instantly his left arm was covered with a large, dark grey shield in the shape of an oval. On the face of it was a golden serpentine dragon wrapped around a lightning bolt. He ran his hand over the dragon and flexed his arm a few times, testing the weight. Satisfied, he unsheathed Amethyst Edge and looked to Muko.

"Wow, you have such awesome gear," the blue-haired girl said in awe, gazing upon the sword and shield.

"I had the sword forged for me by a friend and I got the shield from the event the other day."

"Oh wow, you were in that? I couldn't find anyone to do it with me."

"It was pretty fun, it was exhausting through."

The two reached a crossroads in the dungeon and Chrome held out his arm to stop Muko. He listened for a few seconds, hearing a metallic noise coming from the left. He turned his head slightly and could hear the same noise from the right as well. Chrome could lead Muko straight ahead and avoid both approaching enemies but he didn't want to pass up the EXP he could get.

"There are enemies coming from left and right, you take the left," Chrome said, stepping out and facing the corridor to the right. Muko nodded, readying her mace and facing left as the two sets of armour came into view. Chrome glanced just above his target, the name read Hallowed Knight. Chrome looked behind him and could see the exact same enemy coming for Muko. Both knights were armed with a simple steel sword and a buckler.

"Okay… let's do this," Muko whispered, taking a deep breath. She slowly moved towards her opponent, her shield held up in front of her. The Hallowed Knight started with a high overhead swing that Muko easily blocked with her shield. She batted the sword away with said shield before delivering a strong strike to her enemy's left side. As the knight staggered back, Muko pulled her shield away and then smacked the enemy's helmet, sending it flying off and shattering against the wall. The empty armour took a second to recover before attacking again.

Chrome's fight was going at a much quicker pace. He ducked under a horizontal swing and then attacked with his shield to stagger his opponent. The counterattack was quickly followed up by a sword skill that consisted of a three-hit combo in the shape of a triangle. Chrome then leapt into the air, spun once and delivered a powerful diagonal slash as he fell, cleaving the enemy in half. As it shattered, Chrome sheathed his sword and glanced over at Muko who was repeatedly bludgeoning her opponent after getting it down on one knee.

"You alright?" Chrome asked, walking over to Muko as the Hallowed Armour died.

"Yes, that was an easy enemy," she said with a smile as she turned to face her companion. The two proceeded down the left-hand corridor that Muko had been fighting in and headed deeper into the dungeon. Chrome and Muko fought a number of enemies before reaching the eighth and final basement of the area. It consisted only of a single ledge with a ladder leading down into the darkness.

"After you," Chrome said, holding his hand out towards the ladder. Muko nodded and climbed onto the small steel ladder, heading down slowly. Once she was about halfway down, Chrome climbed on as well, slowly making the descent. Muko got to the bottom and waited until Chrome joined her before they advanced into the dark.

They walked for a few seconds before torches lit up the circular room they found themselves in. Like the rest of the dungeon, the floor, rounded walls and rather high ceiling were all made of the same cracked stones. At the far end of the room were the doors that would lead to floor thirty-nine. Giant, exotic looking plants were growing from broken sections of the wall and floor, giving a bit of colour to the otherwise drab area.

Chrome drew Amethyst Edge and scanned the room for a boss monster. There was nothing though. No sign of any boss monster, not even any BGM. It made Chrome a little uneasy. He could see Muko felt worse than him, her weapon hand was shaking.

"It'll be okay, I'll protect you," Chrome whispered, moving in front of Muko slightly with his shield ready. He took a deep breath and focused on locating any sign of an enemy. Just as he was about to conclude that there was no boss present, Muko let out a rather high-pitched squeal.

"There!" she called out, pointing to one of the giant flowers on the wall. As Chrome looked up at it, a pair of large golden eyes stared right back at him. Seconds later, a massive snake slivered from the centre of the plant and fell to the ground before the two players.

"Sneaky," Chrome muttered, readying his weapon. "I'll take the lead, be ready to switch in when I need you," Chrome said in a serious tone.

"Right," Muko replied and took a few steps back.

The snake hissed at Chrome, it's large, forked tongue flickering outside its mouth. The swordsman charged forward, the light from the burning torches catching the purple blade of his sword. He struck with the Falling Sabre skill he had used on the Hallowed Knight at the start of the dungeon, opening a long diagonal wound on the snake's body. The creature let out a hiss and flicked its tail out at Chrome who was now guarding.

Muko watched in awe as Chrome continued to deliver fast and precise blows to the enemy and only getting hit by attacks that beat his own speed. As the boss' first HP gauge disappeared, she noticed Chrome's had fallen into the yellow. She tightened her shaking hand around her mace and moved in closer. "Chrome, switch with me!" she called out. If he could do that well against this enemy, surely she could deal some good blows. Chrome moved back towards her and the two switched.

Muko ran in and leapt into the air, unleashing a powerful upwards blow to the snake's jaw, slamming its large mouth shut. A look of fury came into The Flora Serpent's eyes as it slithered backwards. Muko barely blocked a strike from its tail and rolled to avoid a deadly bite. Muko continued to deliver strong blows to the boss, slowly depleting the second of its three HP gauges. The snake let out a large hiss and swept Muko from her feet with its large tail. As Muko fell face-first to the ground and some of her HP vanished, the snake slithered up the wall and back into the flower it had come from.

Muko got to her feet and shook her head slightly, looking up at the unmoving plant. She focused on it intently, her shield raised as Chrome watched her from behind. Muko caught a glimpse of something to her right but it was too late. The snake came flying from another flower and slammed straight into the blue-haired girl, sending her flying through the air and then tumbling across the hard ground.

"Muko!" Chrome yelled out, charging forward. He rammed his sword into the lower half of The Flora Serpent's body and used it to vault to the other side before wrenching the sword free. Chrome ran as fast as his legs could carry him, watching as the snake's open mouth came ever closer to Muko. "Get away from her!" Chrome roared, jumping between his comrade and the monster before slamming his shield into the side of the boss' head. The snake hissed, recoiled and shook its head.

Chrome took up a defensive stance as Muko slowly rose behind him, her HP in the red. Chrome quickly blocked a strike from the snake's tail and then ran at the monster. "Try my Star Cutter!" he yelled, delivering a fast ten-hit combo in the shape of a star onto the boss. The Flora Serpent screeched in pain and Chrome leapt onto the monster's body, running up towards its head.

"Chrome, look out!" Muko called out, hesitating for a moment before running at the snake which was turning its head to bite Chrome. She glanced up at her still red HP gauge and took a deep breath, jumping up and smashing her mace into the snake's jaw. The beast was staggered and Muko quickly backed away, her shield raised high.

Chrome reached the snake's head and spun his sword around above his head before driving it down between the boss' eyes. Its final HP bar emptied and the boss shattered, causing Chrome to fall to the ground. He fell to one knee, his sword on the ground as he panted. His heart hammered in his chest as Muko approached him.

"Are you okay?" she asked quietly, looking down at Chrome with a concerned expression. "That thing almost got you."

"I'm alright, that was fun," Chrome replied with a slight smile as he stood up.

"Fun? I was terrified, we both almost died," Muko said, her body shaking.

"But its ok, we both survived. This is nothing compared to what the people who were trapped in here felt, at least we can respawn," Chrome said, sheathing his sword and watching his HP slowly recover.

"Well, thank you for saving me regardless," Muko said quietly, blushing a little.

"I said I'd protect you right?" Chrome asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. Muko nodded. "Come on, let's get out of here," he said, leading Muko out of the dungeon and up to the thirty-ninth floor.

Chrome's eyes went wide when they came back out into daylight. His eyes were drawn to a familiar figure who stood up from a seat and began approaching. The player's forest green armour shone slightly in the sunlight as they got closer.

"Well, well, well. What might you be doing all alone in a dungeon with this young lady Chrome?" Arcadia asked with a grin, raising her eyebrow. Chrome's palm connected with his face as his teacher asked the question.

"What are you doing here Arcadia?" he asked.

"Well I was gonna hang out with you but I saw you were in that dungeon so I figured I'd wait here for you, but it seems you already have ample company," Arcadia said, her grin widening.

"So you were stalking me?"

"More or less."

"That's creepy."

"Nope, that's boredom."

"Um, Chrome, who is this?" Muko asked in a timid voice after listening to the odd exchange.

"Oh right, this is Arcadia. She's a friend of mine from the real world. Arcadia this is Muko," Chrome said, looking between the two.

"It's nice to meet you Muko," Arcadia said, holding out her hand with a warm smile.

"You too," Muko said, returning the smile and shaking the older woman's hand. When she released Muko's hand, Arcadia's arm was instantly around Chrome's shoulder.

"So what were you two doing in there? Having a cute little date, holding hands, ooh maybe something more…," Chrome's fist smacked the top of Arcadia's head before she could continue.

"We were training," Chrome said, shrugging Arcadia's arm free.

"Aww, well that's no fun," the axe user said, pouting.

"What's the matter, are you jealous?" Chrome asked with a slight smirk.

"Why the heck would I be jealous?" Arcadia asked in return, the volume of her voice rising a little more than she intended.

"Oh right, I forgot, you have Hakuya now don't you," Chrome said, patting his teacher's shoulder as he began to walk away, Muko following behind.

"What?! I don't have Hakuya! I don't have any… one…," Arcadia yelled out after stomping her foot several times. Her voice dropped at the end and she frowned. "Damn…," she muttered. "Dammit Chrome, get back here!" Arcadia yelled, running after Chrome and Muko.


	13. Chapter 12

A cold wind danced through the trees as the cloaked figure walked through the soggy marshlands without a sound. His sword sat motionless on his waist as his eyes remained dead ahead. His blonde hair hung down his back as if there was no wind at all. A wolf crossed the figure's path and he glanced down at it. The beast stared up at the outsider, gave a small growl and continued on its way.

The man looked down at a skeleton half buried in the marsh as he walked past it. His eyes lingered for a brief moment before they flickered back to the front. Within a few minutes he reached his destination, a large gravestone right in the centre of the marsh.

The stone was easily at least eight feet tall and several feet across in the shape of a somewhat rounded triangle. It sat on a small island across a half-submerged footbridge. The water around the island was more like slime and was a dark green colour. It gave off a rather foul odour but that didn't seem to bother the figure as he crossed the footbridge, the wooden planks not sinking at all.

The figure stood for several long moments before the gravestone, simply staring at the names carved on it. He pushed his finger against several of the names in succession, each lighting up as he did so. As the final name lit up, a black keyboard slid out of the gravestone along with several holographic screens.

His fingers flew across the keyboard at inhuman speeds as he opened up several menus and skimmed through them. His eyes lingered on one in particular, browsing through its contents quickly as though it could disappear at any moment.

As he closed the menus and the console vanished back into the gravestone, the figure turned to see three others approaching him. He glanced between them, each had the same distinctive tattoo visible on their bodies somewhere. Each of them had their weapons drawn as they carefully crossed the footbridge to the island, each step causing it to sink further into the sludge.

The figure watched as the first player, a burly man with a beard and long, grey hair stepped onto the island, his silver armour clinking as he moved. On his back sat a deadly looking claymore that shone slightly in the pale moonlight.

"You are Jirokura?" the figure asked.

"Aye. Leader of the Death Gamer guild, Devil Crows," the bigger man replied as his comrades finally joined him. The three warily watched the sapphire cloaked figure as he sized up Jirokura.

"Things will be ready within the next two months, my preparations are almost complete."

"Good, as promised you shall have all of the Death Gamer guilds at your disposal when you are ready. Only two more require convincing."

"Make sure they are all ready when I am. I will not wait." The three DGamers parted as the cloaked figure walked past them, crossing the footbridge once again without moving it. They watched as he disappeared into the marsh before one of Jirokura's comrade's spoke.

"Man… that guy must have some crazy stats to be able to do that," he said. The other two nodded in agreement.


	14. Chapter 13

Ren walked into town, his coat wrapped around him as the cool November air whipped around him. He had spent the last few months training with his allies non-stop and now the rumoured December event was only one week away. He had organised a party of five to take on the event consisting of himself, Muko, Kotetsu, Arcadia and Vakross. He'd tried to get Hakuya to come too but apparently he had prior arrangements.

Now Ren was on his way to meet up with Tatsuya and Megumi to discuss the event. The three had all agreed to meet in a park not too far from Ren's place. Although he now wished he'd chosen somewhere inside, it was getting cold pretty early this year.

As Ren arrived at the park he immediately spotted Tatsuya sitting on a bench in jeans and a leather jacket, a pair of sunglasses pushed up into his hair. He gave Ren a small wave as the shorter boy approached. "Morning," Ren said, sitting down next to him. Tatsuya nodded in reply and the two boys waited until Megumi came into view.

"Sorry I'm late!" she called out, running up in a long dress, boots and a jumper.

"No problem, we weren't waiting too long, right?" Tatsuya asked, looking at Ren who nodded. The three had met up in real life a few times since Megumi had joined their online party. She was yet to meet Takiko however.

"So the event is only a week away now, what level are you guys?" Ren asked, looking between his two friends. "I'm at fifty-six."

"Fifty for me, I wish I could've gotten higher," Tatsuya said with a slight sigh.

"I'm at level forty-nine," Megumi said.

"Arcadia said she's at fifty-four and I think Vakross is at fifty-three so we're all pretty close together," Ren explained. A sliver of uncertainty ran through his mind. He still hadn't told the others about his dream and he'd really been hoping everyone would have been at least level fifty-five.

"Well those are pretty high levels, we should be able to do it right? I mean you guys cleared the siege event in Lindas when you were back in the lower levels," Megumi said.

"Yeah! We'll ace this as long as we work together. I kind of wish Hakuya was coming along though," Tatsuya said.

"Not much we can do about it, he had other things to do," Ren said with a slight shrug.

"Hey, Muko, that you?" a voice asked from behind the small group. Megumi turned her head and hesitantly rose as a young man approached her. He looked to be a college student.

"Oh… hello Odayuki," Megumi said in a meek voice.

"Who are these two?" Odayuki asked, looking between Ren and Tatsuya who curiously watched him.

"They're um… friends from school," Megumi said, looking away a little.

"Whatever. You heard about what's going on right? You'll be joining us won't you?"

"Oh um… I don't think so, sorry."

"What, why the heck not? You ain't got no reason not to so what's the problem?"

"I'll be busy."

"With these two kids?"

"Yes…"

"Fine, whatever. Don't blame me if you get in shit for not doing this."

With those last words, Odayuki gave Ren and Tatsuya a rather unimpressed looking scowl before turning and walking away.

"Who was that guy?" Ren asked, relaxing a little as the college student left.

"Oh, he was an acquaintance from ALO," Megumi said, sitting back down.

"He didn't seem too happy, what did he want you to do?" Tatsuya asked. He wondered why Megumi had said she knew them from school when she went to a completely different high school.

"Him and some of his friends are having some big gathering on the same day as the December quest and he wants me to go."

"Sorry, I guess we got you in trouble," Ren said, looking down at his legs. Megumi shook her head.

"No way, I'd much rather hang out with you guys. I don't really like him and his friends anyway," Megumi said with a smile. "So anyway, what's our strategy for this boss?"

"Well we don't really have any information on it so we'll have to play it safe to start with. I'm thinking you, me and Arcadia will start off at the front with Tatsuya and Vakross in the back switching in when we need breaks," Ren explained. Megumi's eyes went wide and she stared at Ren.

"What? Y-you want me at the front?" she asked.

"Yeah. You and I have shields so we can help block attacks while Arcadia dishes out massive damage."

"Oh… I see."

"Don't worry, I'm sure Ren will save you if you get into trouble," Tatsuya said with a huge grin. Megumi had told the others how her and Ren had met and Tatsuya had been constantly teasing them about it ever since.

"Note to self, use Tatsuya as bait when the enemy attacks," Ren remarked. Megumi laughed while Tatsuya stuck his tongue out.

"Seriously though, is that it? Just keeping switching around till it dies?" Tatsuya asked, a little surprise by the simple plan.

"Well there's not much else we can do. We know nothing about this boss," Ren replied. "Besides, I thought you'd like such a simple plan."

"You're confusing me with Arcadia, she's the one who likes to go in there and start smashing things," Tatsuya said.

"Oh yeah, did you make sure to get a spare weapon and shield in case the durability of your main ones run low during the battle?" Ren asked, looking at Megumi.

"Yep, I got them yesterday before I logged off. They're not quite as good as my normal equipment but they're still strong," Megumi replied.

"I managed to get a Crystallite Sword and Crystallite Shield. Same as you though, they're not quite as strong as my usual gear. Let's all just make sure we do our best next week."

"Dude we'll be fine. Quit being so on edge, it's just a game anyway, not like we'll really die if we screw up," Tatsuya said with a grin. He placed a hand on Ren's shoulder and the brown haired boy nodded.

The three sat for over an hour discussing various things from ALO to school. After they had spoken about everything interesting they could find, they each decided to head home. As soon as Ren got back home, he went straight to his room and put on his AmuSphere and laid down on his bed. He closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath. "Link start."

Chrome slid out of bed and walked into the lounge room of his house in a simple t-shirt and long pants. He sat down on his armchair and let out a long sigh. His dream weighed heavily on his mind and he wondered if it was wrong of him to keep it a secret from the others. He knew what Tatsuya had said was right, ALO was just a game. This wasn't SAO from a few years ago, it's not like they could die for real. Still, something just felt wrong.

He opened his menu and took out Amethyst Edge, drawing the purple bladed sword and holding it out before him. Even though he'd had the sword for a few months now, thanks to Lisbeth's upgrades, he hadn't needed to replace it yet. He was glad about that, he really liked the sword. He shook his head and smiled a little, he felt it pretty silly that he'd gotten so attached to a digital sword.

Chrome got to his feet and twirled the sword around a few times, feeling it glide through the air with each wave of his arm. He lowered the sword, the tip resting on the wooden floor. This sword would be the one he carried into battle a week from now he thought to himself, glancing down at the weapon. No matter what… he'd use it to protect everyone.

There was a knock on the door of Chrome's house and he returned Amethyst Edge to its grey sheath and headed for the door, holding said sheath in his hand. He opened the door and found a familiar face smiling at him from the other side.

"It's unusual to find you just sitting around," Muko said, keeping the gentle smile on her face.

"Really? I guess I just don't feel like levelling right now," Chrome replied, inviting the girl in. The two headed into the lounge room and sat down, Chrome on his usual armchair and Muko on the long couch. "So what brings you here?" Chrome asked, placing his sword on the coffee table.

"Well I logged in and saw you were online so I figured I'd come see what you were doing. None of the others are on so I had nobody else to hang out with."

"Oh, so I'm the one you come to when everyone else is offline?" Chrome had a slight grin as he asked the question. Muko's cheeks puffed up a little as she replied.

"You know what I meant."

"Yeah I do."

"So, is something wrong?"

"What do you mean?"

Muko seemed to think for a second, obviously trying to figure out how to explain what she was asking. "Well, you've seemed to be getting edgy the closer it gets to this event. I haven't known you very long but you always seem so calm and collected, this isn't like you," she explained.

"I see. Well, I guess I've just had some stuff on my mind. It's nothing you need to worry about though," Chrome said with a reassuring smile.

"That's not true. I may not have known you as long as Kotetsu and Arcadia, but I can tell something is wrong. When something is troubling you, it's better to talk about it," Muko said, a worried expression on her face as she looked at Chrome. He let out a slight sigh and leant back in his chair.

"For a while now, ever since I first heard about this event and decided to do it with Arcadia and Kotetsu, I've been having this weird dream. I get to the event area with Arcadia and someone else, I think it's maybe Vakross and instead of some monster, there's some guy there and he beats the three of us like it's nothing. I'm left lying on the ground, unable to move and watching as he kills the others. Then I get up for one last attack and he kills me. I usually wake up when I see the death screen but it just feels… different," Chrome explained, staring down at the sword the whole time he spoke.

"Wow. So you think it's like some sort of premonition thing?" Muko asked, slightly shocked by everything she had heard.

"I really don't know. It just feels so real. I mean I'm even using the Crystallite stuff I bought yesterday. I think what really gets me though is when I get killed… I don't know why but it scares the hell out of me, I've never felt like that when I've died in the game."

"It'll all be fine," Muko said with a warm smile. "You've protected me all this time so if your dream does come true, I'll do whatever it takes to protect you… even if it means I lose my life." Chrome looked up as Muko's voice went quiet and she seemed to shudder a little.

"You okay?" Chrome asked.

"Yep, I'm fine!" Muko replied with a big smile. "You don't have to worry about a thing okay, I swear I won't let you die." Muko stared into Chrome's eyes with her usual warm smile and he couldn't help but feel better.

"I guess we'll be protecting each other then, because I won't let you die either."

"Seems like it." The two smiled at each other and Muko got to her feet. "Well I guess I should probably get going," Muko said, blushing a little. As she turned to leave the room, Chrome got to his feet as well.

"Muko," he said. As the girl turned around, Chrome put his arms around her and held her against him. "Thank you," he whispered. Muko felt as though her brain may explode at any moment as she tried to speak.

"F-for what?" she managed to ask.

"For listening, and for being here," Chrome replied. He closed his eyes slowly and kept his arms around Muko. The two stood still for a long while, holding each other without another word being spoken.


	15. Chapter 14

Chrome and Arcadia stood at the entrance to The Ethereal Ruins, an area on the fifteenth floor of Aincrad. It was an empty area with no enemies, no NPCs and no quests relating to it. Until now that was. The ruins were the location of the rumoured December event quest set to start in just under an hour. Chrome's hand fell to the white-wrapped handle of his sword and he ran his hand along the cool leather.

"It's been quite a while since it's been just the two of us hasn't it?" Arcadia asked, leaning against a collapsed stone pillar.

"Yeah, ever since we met up with Vakross and Muko things have been pretty hectic. It's been ages since we started playing ALO, then Tatsuya joined us not long after," Chrome said, looking up at the sky.

"Look at us, reminiscing like two old people," Arcadia said with a small laugh.

"I better be careful, I might throw my back out in the fight," Chrome said with a wide grin. The two laughed and continued to chat idly until Kotetsu arrived.

"Yo! You two ready for this?" he said, stretching and cracking his neck.

"I didn't get any sleep last night, I was too excited, we've been getting ready for this for so long!" Arcadia said, Chrome thought she'd start bouncing if she got any more excited. "Heck I checked all my equipment at least four times before coming here."

"Aw crap, I didn't check mine at all!" Kotetsu said, quickly bringing up his menu. Arcadia shook her head, ashamed at her student's disorganisation. "Ha, I'm all good to go!"

The three waited until Muko and Vakross finally arrived and everyone decided to do one final check on their equipment. Once everyone was ready to go they all gathered at the archway that led into The Ethereal Ruins.

"We're all clear on the plan for the boss fight right?" Chrome asked, his hand on his sword.

"It's not exactly a complex plan, hit, switch, repeat," Vakross said, rubbing his neck. Chrome nodded and took the first step into the area.

As soon as the party made their way over the threshold, the scenery completely changed. They were suddenly being battered by heavy rain and an ice-cold wind coiled around them. There was a loud clap of thunder and Chrome shuddered a little. He glanced around at the cracked and broken cobblestone paths, long grass growing up through it. The collapsed, moss-covered buildings were sleek with water and the pitch black sky made it somewhat difficult to see.

The group of five slowly made their way through the area, scanning every crossroads and pathway for any sign of an enemy. They figured that the boss would probably make some dramatic entrance but the scenery made everyone nervous. Chrome especially.

It wasn't long before they reached the centre of the ruins. The scene that greeted them was not what they expected though. The rundown courtyard was filled to the brim with players. Chrome could see the DGamer tattoo on quite a number of them. What were so many of them doing in one place?

What really drew his attention though was the blue-cloaked figure standing before them all. The figure that he had seen far too many times. He had an extremely bad feeling about all this. "Hide!" he hissed, leading everyone behind a fallen stone wall where they could observe what was happening. Chrome watched anxiously as the cloaked figure began to speak.

"Death Gamers. You are all gathered here because you live in this world how it was intended, where every battle could end in permanent death. This world once induced fear in all of its residents but now it is merely a source of amusement where humanity can get away from its problems for a few hours. I however, want this world to return to how it used to be. I want to feel once more the fear of the pathetic humans who tried to beat it as they walk with the reaper at their back. Except this time, you all shall be the reaper," the sapphire-cloaked figure said. There were murmurs throughout the group of gathered DGamers but that didn't stop him from continuing.

"In fifteen minutes, a program will activate that will seal every person logged into the Aincrad server of ALfheim Online within the game. However unlike Akihiko Kayaba, I will not release anyone until their real body perishes. For those within the game, it shall become their reality. Without the ability to log out, if a player's AmuSphere is removed, they shall not awaken. Instead their mind shall remain within the game and will forever be separated from their real body."

"W-what if someone dies in the game?" one of the DGamers called out.

"If that happens, they will lose everything they have and will be reduced to level one. No matter what, everyone will be trapped inside this game until the day that their mortality spells the end of them."

Chrome listened in horror as the figure from his dream spoke. Now he understood why the death in his dream felt more terrifying than any death he had suffered in ALO already. Now he was faced with two choices, either log out and escape the trap that would soon ensnare Aincrad or he could get up and try to stop this psychopath and his plan. Before his mind could decide which option to choose, his body was already rising.

"Chrome," Kotetsu hissed, his eyes wide. It was too late. Several DGamers turned and saw the swordsman rising. There was a yell of alarm and all eyes were now on Chrome. The rest of the party quickly rose, standing with him.

"All of you, stop them. Make sure they do not leave this area!" the cloaked figure called, waving an arm towards the eavesdroppers. The seven closest Death Gamers to the party drew their weapons and began advancing.

"So uh… we got a plan here?" Kotetsu asked, drawing his dagger. Chrome remained silent as he drew his own weapon.

"I think it's clear, take out the guy up there giving the speech," Vakross said as he watched the approaching DGamers. There was a roar as the first leapt at Chrome. As his attacker's sword came down, Chrome blocked with his shield, delivered a lightning fast blow that removed the DGamer's weapon arm before Chrome's shield slammed into his head.

"We need to get through them!" Arcadia called out, brandishing her axe and charging into the group, swinging wildly. Several DGamers were thrown through the air when Arcadia's wild attacks slammed into them.

Kotetsu charged into the large group of DGamers, slashing, punching and throwing darts at anyone he could reached. Vakross moved at his side, cutting through anyone who stood ahead of his katana. Nobody was worried about killing their targets, they just wanted to get past them. Muko moved behind Chrome, blocking any attacks that came close before retaliating with her mace. Her heart thundered in her chest as the enemies began to surround them.

"Chrome, what do we do?" she asked, the fear in her voice obvious.

"I'll stop him," Chrome said. He batted away another attacker with his shield before moving forward. Muko remained close behind him, her eyes flitting from side to side. As a spear came towards her, Muko let out a squeal and raised her shield, blocking the attack.

"M-Muko?" a voice asked as the spear was lowered. Muko hesitantly lowered her shield and gasped when she saw her attacker.

"Odayuki," Muko whispered, stepping towards Chrome who was now at her side.

"Why are you here? What the hell are you doing with these guys?" Odayuki asked, looking over at Chrome.

"Muko, we don't have time…," Chrome began.

"Shut up! She should be here with us, not with you loser!" Odayuki roared.

"What?" Chrome asked, looking at Muko.

"Leave me alone Odayuki, I can't deal with this right now," Muko said, starting to turn. Odayuki struck out with his spear and tore open Muko's tunic at her hip. As the fabric split, Chrome's eyes went wide. There on her skin was a tattoo he had seen so many times. The Death Gamer mark.

"Muko… you're…," Chrome whispered, unsure of what to say. The girl looked up at Chrome, tears in her eyes. As her tears began to fall, Muko ran from the battlefield until she was out of sight. Chrome's arms fell, leaving him defenceless as he watched her leave.

"You bastard, you're the one who made her want to leave us!" Odayuki screamed. He leapt forward with his spear and Chrome hurried to block with his shield. He could see the pure rage in his opponent's face.

"I don't have time for you!" Chrome yelled, driving his sword into Odayuki's stomach and wrenching it to the side before charging for the cloaked man once more. He ran through the group of yelling DGamers, pushing them aside with his sword and shield as the rain pelted down on him. Thoughts about Muko ran through his mind as he fought his way out of the group. He could see that Arcadia had also made it out. They both ran for the cloaked figure.

"So you made it through them. Not bad for mortals," he said, drawing the plain steel sword Chrome had seen in his dreams. He felt his body tense as he took up a defensive stance. Chrome's eyes lingered to the right as Vakross moved up beside him. This only made Chrome more nervous.

"Who are you?" Arcadia asked, pointing her axe at the man.

"Hmm, you want my name? I guess I never bothered to take one," the cloaked man said, rubbing his chin. "How about we go with Nobunaga? From what I've read he seemed to be an interesting character," the blonde swordsman said with a slight smile that sent shivers up Chrome's spine.

"Why… why are you doing this? Why gather all the Death Gamers and why trap people in virtual reality again. What the hell is the point?!" Chrome roared, pointing Amethyst Edge at Nobunaga.

"My reasons are none of your concern. The only thing you should worry about right now is staying alive. Soon, fear shall once again bathe this world and everything shall be as it should be. You have no hope of stopping me and you cannot escape this world now, my system has activated." Nobunaga rose his hands to the sky as he spoke and for a brief moment everything seemed to shudder.

"So… once again I'm trapped in Aincrad…" Vakross murmured, opening his menu and finding the log out button gone.

"You won't get away with this!" Arcadia called out, leaping into the air and aiming her axe at Nobunaga. The swordsman deflected the attack with his sword before the blade of said sword quickly ran across Arcadia's body. Chrome watched as his teacher fell backwards, her HP dropping straight to the red.

"Arcadia!" he called out, running towards her. He knelt down beside the woman and began using healing items on her. As he did so, Vakross slowly approached Nobunaga with his weapon raised. The two exchanged a few fast blows before Nobunaga's sword flicked out, entering Vakross' chest. He fell backwards and dropped his katana as he slumped down against a building. Chrome looked between his two friends and his whole body began to shake.

"Would you like to try as well? I won't kill any of you yet, it wouldn't be sporting of me to start having too much fun before the game officially begins," Nobunaga said with a smile, spreading his arms.

Chrome slowly rose to his feet, his sword and shield lowered. He could hear Kotetsu yelling something from behind him but he had no idea what it was. His shallow breaths shuddered as a combination of fear and anger ran through him. He couldn't let this guy get away with what he was doing, but at the same time he was too afraid to challenge him. After a few moments of hesitation, he slowly sheathed his sword and turned to Kotetsu.

"Take Vakross… we're leaving," he said in an emotionless tone as he leant down and picked up Arcadia. Kotetsu ran up to Vakross and picked up both him and his sword, following Chrome. The DGamers watched with content sneers as the two left The Ethereal Ruins.

"Chrome… what the heck just happened?" Kotetsu asked once the two returned to Chrome's house in Lindas. By now Arcadia and Vakross had also regained consciousness and looked at Chrome.

"I really don't know… If what that guy said is true, we're stuck here in Aincrad now. Look for yourself, the log out button is gone," Chrome replied, sitting in his armchair and staring up at the roof.

"It's just like before. Just like SAO," Vakross said.

"You mentioned something like that when we were facing Nobunaga. Where you…?" Arcadia asked, looking at the swordsman.

"Yes. I was one of the players trapped within Sword Art Online for two years. It wasn't something I expected to be repeating anytime soon," Vakross replied. "This time though… it sounds a lot worse."

"Hey Chrome, what happened to Muko. She didn't die did she?" Kotetsu asked, looking over at Chrome.

"I don't know where she is. She left during the fight," he replied, getting to his feet. "I need some time to myself," he said. Chrome left the others and headed into his room, locking the door behind him. As he sat down on his bed, he put his face in palms. "Why didn't I log out? Because I chose to stay… now they're all trapped in here because of me," he whispered. He laid down on his bed and covered his eyes with his arm.

"Muko… where did you go?" Chrome whispered as his eyes began to close. He knew this was only the beginning. Things would only get worse from here. Much worse.


	16. Chapter 15

It didn't take long for Nobunaga to announce to the players of ALO what he had done. At first people laughed it off, thinking it was the December event that had been announced months ago. However, after twenty-four hours passed and they still could not log out, people began to suspect what the stranger had said was true. That was when it happened, players began breaking down and fear began to seep into their minds, just like Nobunaga had wanted.

Some players tried committing in-game suicide to try and escape the game but it was pointless. As Nobunaga had said, they were simply reverted to level one and all of their items were taken from them by the system.

Chrome had invited the others to stay at his place for now until they could each get their own to save inn costs. Chrome slid out of bed and walked into his lounge room where Kotetsu was asleep on the couch. Arcadia had claimed the house's spare room and Vakross already had his own house so he stayed there.

Kotetsu rubbed his eyes as he slowly sat up, watching Chrome head into the kitchen. "Morning," the dagger user groaned, swinging his legs off the couch so his feet touched the floor.

"Morning," Chrome replied, turning on the stove. "Did you sleep okay?" he asked.

"I think so, it still feels weird being in here all day every day, even when we sleep," Kotetsu replied, getting to his feet. He strode into the kitchen, examining what Chrome was cooking. The scent of bacon caught his nose and he couldn't help but drool a little. "Man that smells good."

"Hopefully it tastes better than yesterday's batch," Chrome said, remembering the blackened meat he had served to his friends the previous morning. As if drawn by the scent of the bacon, Arcadia's head popped around the corner, the rest of her body soon following.

"Bacon. Need it now. Feed me," she grumbled, sitting at the dining room table, staring blankly at the wall ahead of her.

"You really don't like mornings do you?" Kotetsu asked, putting a pot of coffee on the stove next to the bacon.

"No. Anyone who does is insane," Arcadia replied, not even blinking.

"Here, eat pig and wake up," Chrome said, placing a plate of utterly delicious looking bacon before his teacher. Arcadia's eyes flung open and within seconds her fork was impaling the meat. Kotetsu prepared and served three mugs of coffee just as Chrome gave him his breakfast.

"Thanks man," Kotetsu said with an appreciative nod. Chrome finished cooking his own breakfast and sat down at the table. "So, what's the plan for today?" Kotetsu asked, looking over at Chrome.

"I'm not sure. I was thinking of going to see Muko, I really need to talk to her about everything," Chrome replied. Kotetsu nodded his understanding.

"I'll probably drag this one and go do some Col grinding, we can't be freeloaders here forever after all," Kotetsu said. He glanced at Arcadia who was eagerly devouring her breakfast.

"I don't really mind, it's nice to have company."

"Yeah but it's not cool stealing your couch." Kotetsu shot Chrome a bit of a grin. Chrome smiled a little, he knew his friend meant well and just didn't want to impose.

"Well, take as long as you need," Chrome said. He finished his food and coffee and got to his feet, putting his dishes in the kitchen. "I'm gonna head off, I'll see you guys when I get back," he said, equipping his gear and heading for the door.

"Be careful out there," Arcadia said, looking at her student with a serious expression.

"I will be. I don't plan on fighting anything," Chrome said as he left the house. He headed for the plaza, opening up his friends list as he walked and scrolling down to the M section. He spotted her name and clicked on it, then his finger tapped the message icon. He then proceeded to write Muko a quick message.

Hey,

I was just wondering if we could meet up and chat for a bit. You can name the place.

Chrome.

He clicked send on the message and sat down in the plaza, awaiting a response. It took a few minutes but eventually he heard the chime indicating he had received a message. He opened it up and checked the response.

Okay. I'll be in Algade.

Muko.

Chrome quickly read the short response and raised his hand. "Teleport, Algade!" he called out. He was engulfed in light and seconds later he was in the much busier city that was home to many of Aincrad's player-run markets and stores. Chrome looked around, waiting for the familiar face to appear somewhere near him. It took a few moments, but eventually Muko appeared, her eyes to the ground and a distant expression on her young face. Chrome slowly approached her.

"Hey," he said quietly.

"Hi," she replied.

"Um, is there somewhere you'd like to go? It's kinda noisy here."

"Just outside town, there's a hill overlooking a lake."

"I know it, let's go."

The two walked for a few minutes until they reached the place Muko mentioned. It was a rather steep and tall hill with a single cherry blossom tree at the top. The whole thing was covered in lush grass that was still damp. At the summit, the two were given a breathtaking view of a huge lake, glistening in the morning sunlight. Chrome and Muko sat under the tree, staring out at the water in silence.

"Chrome, do you hate me?" Muko asked, looking down at her legs.

"Why would I hate you? You're my friend," Chrome replied, his eyes were on the water still.

"Because I'm a Death Gamer, and I lied to you about it all this time."

"You didn't lie to me though. You never said you were just a normal player. It was something you chose not to mention and that was your choice. I'm sure you would have told me if I'd asked."

"But you hate the Death Gamers right? That's why you're the D Hunter."

"I don't hate DGamers at all, I just killed a few who picked fights with me, they gave me that title themselves. Sure I don't really see the point in what they do but everyone is entitled to their own choices right? I'm sure you have a good reason for being one of them."

"I only played as one because some people from my school wanted me to. It's such a stupid reason. I tried to leave so many times but they wouldn't let me, they said they'd hunt me down every time I was online if I quit."

"But you eventually stopped hanging around them after a while right?"

"Yes. When I started playing the game with you I stopped playing with them. I still played as a DGamer because I was afraid of them, but I didn't want anything to do with them. I know, it doesn't make any sense."

Chrome placed his hand on Muko shoulder and smiled at her. The girl looked back at him, blinking her tear-filled eyes several times. There were a few moments of silence before Chrome gently pulled Muko against him, holding her tight. The girl's eyes fluttered a few times before she began to cry into Chrome's chest.

"I was so worried that you'd hate me when you found out, that's why I ran. I'm so sorry," Muko sobbed quietly. Chrome shushed her quietly as he stroked her blue hair softly.

"It's okay. I would never hate you for something like that. You're my friend," he whispered. Muko continued to sob into Chrome's chest as he held her, leaning against the tree. Chrome waited a few minutes before smiling a little. "Geez, keep crying like that and you'll turn this hill into a lake too," he said with a quiet laugh.

"You're mean," Muko said, looking up at him and pouting. Chrome couldn't help but admit that it was possibly one of the cutest things he had ever seen. Of course, he was smart enough not to voice that opinion out loud.

"Hey, it made the tears stop though, right?" Chrome said, running his finger along the bottom of her eyes gently, wiping away her remaining tears.

"Still mean," Muko said, burying her face in his chest again. "Hey, can I show you something?" Muko said quietly, looking up at Chrome.

"Sure," Chrome replied. Muko got to her feet and slowly lifted up her tunic. Chrome noticed straight away that the DGamer tattoo was no longer present on her hip. Chrome was a little shocked however to see that the tattoo had been replaced with another, the new one being RH written in a cursive font. "That's…," Chrome began, looking at the letters.

"Ren Hikari, the first boy I fell in love with," Muko said with a nervous smile, her cheeks bright red. Chrome's cheeks soon matched and he rose to his feet.

"Geez, how am I supposed to respond to that you dork," Chrome said, closing his eyes and hugging Muko tightly. "I'm curious though, didn't you think I hated you?" he asked as he held the girl.

"Yeah. But I still felt that way about you, even if you did hate me. I'm glad you don't," Muko said quietly, a smile on her face.

"What am I gonna do with you?"

"Hugs are good, you can keep doing that."

Chrome shook his head slowly with a laugh and continued to hold Muko.

The two eventually returned to Chrome's house to find Arcadia laying on the floor and Kotetsu in the kitchen. Chrome raised an eyebrow at his sprawled teacher but figured it better not too ask as he sat down on his usual armchair. Muko however decided to ask the question.

"Um, Miss Arcadia, why are you on the floor?" the blue haired girl asked. Arcadia blew the purple hair from her eyes and groaned.

"The floor called to me, I couldn't ignore it," she groaned.

"She just didn't want to gather Col," Kotetsu said, preparing coffee once again. "Welcome back by the way," he said, smiling at Muko.

"Thank you, sorry for running off like I did," she replied.

"It's all good, you came back so just forget about it," Kotetsu said.

"You really like making this stuff don't you?" Chrome asked as Kotetsu handed him a full coffee mug.

"It's about the only useful thing I can do in the kitchen. Besides, you're letting us stay here so I have to help out somehow."

"Well thanks, it's a nice gesture." Kotetsu handed Muko a mug as well and the girl thanked him with a smile before sipping the warm beverage. "So have you thought of a place to get a house yet?" Chrome asked, looking at Kotetsu.

"Not sure yet. I was thinking Algade since it has all the markets but it is a bit pricey being a higher floor," he explained as he sat down. "Not sure where this one is going though," he said, motioning to Arcadia.

"I'll find somewhere," Arcadia said, getting off the floor and climbing up onto the couch.

"Yeah but you need money first," Kotetsu said.

"Don't worry, I'll go get some tomorrow," the older woman said with a casual wave of her hand. Kotetsu sighed and shook his head. There was a knock at the door and a familiar voice called out to the group.

"Yo! Anyone home?"

Chrome got to his feet and opened the door to find Hakuya on the other side. The tall spearman gave a small wave and Chrome let him in. "Morning all. Hello my Princess," Hakuya said, bowing before Arcadia.

"Keep moving," the purple haired woman said, sipping her coffee. Hakuya clutched at his chest with a pained expression before grabbing a chair from the dining room and bringing it into the living room.

"What brings you around here?" Chrome asked, looking at Hakuya.

"I was just in the neighbourhood and thought I should stop by, haven't seen you guys in a while. That, and not seeing the beautiful axe-wielding Princess made my heart ache each and every day," Hakuya declared rather dramatically.

"Keep dreaming Hakuya, never gonna happen," Arcadia said.

"Ha, you called me by my name! This means your love for me is beginning to blossom. Do not hide it, embrace it!" Hakuya said, flicking his fringe.

"Wow… this guy is really a glass-half-full kind of guy huh?" Kotetsu asked, looking at Chrome. The swordsman silently nodded in reply.

"Did you just come here to hit on Miss Arcadia?" Muko asked, raising an eyebrow at Hakuya.

"Well, perhaps. Yes, probably. No! I have a perfectly legitimate reason for this visit!" Hakuya said. Chrome tilted his head a little as he watched Hakuya, he reminded him somewhat of one of those dramatic theatre actors. "I found out what part the Death Gamers are playing in Nobunaga's plan," Hakuya said, his voice turning serious.

"Really, what is it?" Chrome asked, rising to his feet.

"It would seem he has them attacking players in the fields, trying to kill them. It would appear he has all of the Death Gamers under his command except for two of their guilds. The Gilded Templars and the Death Blade Alliance," Hakuya explained.

"The Death Blade Alliance… they're the ones led by that Kurogane guy right?" Chrome asked. Hakuya nodded in response.

"The Gilded Templars are a strong guild led by a martial artist named Veille. He's a nice guy, it's no surprise he didn't join Nobunaga," Muko explained. "They're a small guild who still play for fun despite being DGamers."

"Well I just thought I'd give you that little bit of information. With that I'll be off. Care to join me Princess?" Hakuya asked, rising to his feet and turning to Arcadia. The purple haired woman raised an eyebrow and Hakuya smiled. "You can't fight it forever," he said, leaving the house.

"I seriously do not like that guy," Arcadia scowled.

"Of course you don't, cause you love him," Kotetsu said with a huge grin. The grin soon disappeared once Arcadia's axe was drawn and aimed at the dagger user's throat. He swallowed and laughed in a degree of fear, slinking back slightly.

"I've been thinking," Chrome said, rubbing his chin.

"Don't do that, it's dangerous," Arcadia remarked. Chrome ignored the comment and continued.

"Why don't we form a small guild? We're usually all in a party anyway and at least this way we'll all have a shared storage that we can access and put items into. Not to mention we get a cool name that everyone can call us by when we go and kick Nobunaga's ass," Chrome said with a slight smile.

"I don't see why not, got a name in mind for us?" Kotetsu asked.

"A few, I'll need to decide on one," Chrome replied.

"Well heck, I'm in, sounds like fun!" Kotetsu said with an eager grin.

"Count me in too," Arcadia said.

"I'll join too," Muko said with a smile.

"If we can get Vakross and Hakuya to join, that'll make us a pretty strong group," Chrome said. "Now for a name," Chrome muttered, thinking to himself.

"Don't rush it. Arcadia and I are gonna go get some Col so think about it overnight and let us know in the morning," Kotetsu said, getting to his feet.

"Darn it, I don't wanna go," Arcadia grumbled, getting up and following Kotetsu out of the house. Chrome leant back in his chair, rubbing his chin as he played with several names in his head. One kept making its way to the top of the list. Azure Storm.


	17. Chapter 16

Chrome's eyes opened slowly and he sat himself up in bed, rubbing his eyes. He glanced over at the curled up figure of Muko still asleep beside him, although she was just a round lump under the blanket. He poked her gently, smiled again and then climbed out of bed. He began making breakfast when he heard Muko's heavy footsteps leaving the bedroom. He looked over at the girl, her blue hair was a mess and she rubbed her closed eyes as she walked.

"Morning," Chrome said, placing a large plate of pancakes on the table. After the two had announced that they had started dating, Kotetsu and Arcadia decided to stay at an inn to give the two some privacy.

"Good morning," Muko said with a tired smile as she scooped some pancakes onto a plate for herself. The two chatted idly as they ate. As if on cue, almost as soon as they finished eating there was a knock at the door. Chrome got to his feet and opened the door to find Arcadia panting on the other side, leaning on the door frame.

"Arcadia, what's up?" Chrome asked.

"It's Kotetsu and Vakross… they got taken by a group of DGamers!" Arcadia said urgently. Chrome heard something drop inside the house and within seconds Muko was at his side.

"What? How did they get taken?" Chrome asked. As he spoke he had already opened his menu and was in the process of equipping his weapon and shield.

"We were out doing some training and we got ambushed. Vakross and Kotetsu managed to kill several of them so the ones who were left decided to capture them instead of killing them right away," Arcadia explained, tears in her eyes. "I can't believe I let that happen to them."

"Don't worry Miss Arcadia, we'll save them," Muko said, placing her hand on the older woman's shoulder. "Right Chrome?"

"Right, Muko and I will get changed and then we'll go get them," the swordsman replied. Arcadia nodded and watched as Chrome and Muko headed inside. They came back a minute later in their combat gear and the three set out. "What floor were you attacked on?"

"It was just outside Algade, I saw them going east from where we fought them," Arcadia explained. The three teleported to Algade and then let Arcadia lead them to the site of the DGamer ambush. From there they headed east until they found a large hut on the edge of the lake Chrome and Muko had been looking at the previous day.

"Not a bad hiding spot, because of the trees you can't see this place until you come right down to the lake. We better be careful, if we get spotted it could put Kotetsu and Vakross in danger," Chrome said, crouching down behind some bushes. Muko and Arcadia crouched down with him and watched the hut.

"What's your plan Chrome?" Arcadia asked. Chrome glanced back, he could see the anguish in her expression, she felt responsible for all this.

"We'll do what we always do, go in and kick ass. With a little bit of sneaking around," Chrome said with a reassuring smile. "We'll look for a back entrance, if not there's a chimney on the top of the house, if there's a way onto the roof we can send Muko down into the house that way."

"But won't that be dangerous?" Arcadia asked, looking at Muko.

"I can do it. I'm tired of having everyone protecting me all the time, from now on I'll fight just as hard as you guys," Muko said, tightening her grip on her mace.

"I'll be back," Chrome said. He made his way into the trees bordering the hut, making sure to keep low to the ground as he scanned the building. He could see several players with various weapons surrounding the hideout, looking out into the trees for any signs of movement. Chrome knew if he went much closer he'd be spotted for sure. "How to do this?" he whispered to himself, lying flat in the undergrowth. He closed his eyes and listened intently.

"Do you really think this guy is gonna show?" one of the DGamers standing guard asked.

"Of course he is, Nobunaga said if we captured his friends it would draw him out," another replied.

"But why is Nobunaga so obsessed with him? I mean sure we call him the D Hunter but I don't see why Nobunaga should have any reason to want him dead."

"Hey, it ain't our job to question him. We just do what we're told. He turned this game back into a real death game for us so we owe him."

Chrome's eyes opened and went wide as he heard the conversation. All this had just been to draw him out? He asked himself the same question the DGamer asked, why did Nobunaga care about him? He was just an everyday player, nothing special. He shook his head and made his way back to Muko and Arcadia.

"So, what's the plan?" Arcadia asked, watching as Chrome returned.

"Apparently all of this was a plan just to draw me out," Chrome replied.

"What, why do they want you?" Muko asked, a worried expression on her face.

"I'm not really sure. But hopefully if I go out they won't do anything to Kotetsu and Vakross, I can distract the DGamers while the two of you get into the house." Chrome got to his feet and drew Amethyst Edge and kept his Shield of the Storm ready as he made his way towards the front of the house. Muko tried to stop him but it was too late.

"Yo, that's the guy right?" one of the DGamers by the front door whispered to his fellow guard.

"Yeah, that's him," the other said.

"I want my friends back," Chrome declared, pointing his sword at the first DGamer who had spoken. There were a few seconds of hesitation before the targeted player stepped forward and drew his own sword.

"Don't know who you're talking about, do you Hidaro?" he asked, looking at his ally.

"Nope, not a clue Tokunaga," the second player said with a grin, drawing a sword.

"Cut the act. I already know you kidnapped them to lure me out. Just let them go and let's get this over with," Chrome said. The two DGamers could see the serious expression on Chrome's face and both knew he wasn't messing around.

"Well then, I guess he already knows. That's too bad. I wanted to screw with his mind a bit before he fell before the Reaper Brothers," Tokunaga said with a twisted, psychotic grin. Chrome's eyes flickered between the two swordsmen as they raised their swords and unison. He could also see the other players that were guarding the house coming to watch.

"Reaper Brothers?" Chrome asked, keeping his weapon ready.

"We've killed more players in these last few days than any other Death Gamers, you'd be smart to fear us," Hidaro said, his grin matching Tokunaga's.

"If you're so terrifying, why is it you were both put out here on guard duty?" Chrome saw Tokunaga's eyebrow twitch. Hidaro smiled a little and grinned.

"We were placed here because obviously Lord Nobunaga trusts us to take you down more than he trusts anyone else," he said. "Now enough chatter, it's time for you to die!" The Reaper Brothers charged forward and Chrome took a deep breath.

As his shield came up to block an overhead strike from Hidaro, a low strike from Tokunaga forced him to quickly reverse his sword and lower it to block the attack. Chrome jumped back and watched his two opponents intently as they circled him. They were fast and there was no denying that they were skilled. For once his opponent had both a loud bark and a strong bite. He had the feeling if he let them gain the upper hand, there wasn't much chance of him surviving this fight.

Chrome tightened his grip on his sword and charged at Hidaro. The two clashed swords and Chrome knew Tokunaga was coming up right behind him. Chrome dragged his sword across Hidaro's and spun around, the tip of his weapon catching Tokunaga on the stomach. The latter jumped back with a slightly shocked expression as Chrome blocked a blow from Hidaro with his shield and stepped away.

His eyes constantly moved between his two opponents, watching their every move carefully. He also worried that one of the watching DGamers might come and attack him from behind while he was focused on the fight. It wouldn't surprise him if that happened.

Muko swung her mace upwards and the last remaining DGamer at the back of the hut was defeated. She sheathed her weapon as he shattered into shards of data. Arcadia came up behind Muko, putting her axe away and looking at the building's back door. "Ready?" she asked. Muko nodded.

Muko silently opened the door and crept inside, Arcadia right behind her. They had come into the hut's kitchen and Muko crouched down behind the bench in the centre of the room. She peeked up over the top, her eyes scanning the dining room ahead of her. There didn't seem to be anyone there. Muko made a small hand signal to Arcadia and the two proceeded into the dining room, stopping at the next door. The two girls stood on one side each before Arcadia quietly opened the door ever so slightly.

The purple haired woman peered inside what seemed to be the living room. It was sparsely decorated with just a single large table in the centre of the room and a large fireplace against the rear wall. Tied up in front of the fire was Vakross and Kotetsu with two DGamers standing guard with spears. Arcadia closed the door and moved over to Muko.

"They're tied up in there. Two spear-users are guarding them," Arcadia whispered.

"We can't physically hurt them since we're in a house but you can still stagger them and keep them away with your weapon, I'll focus on saving the boys," Muko whispered in response. Arcadia nodded and brandished her axe. She kicked the door open and charged with a yell, ramming a shoulder into the closest guard. There was a bright light and sparks when she came in contact with the safe zone barrier surrounding him but he was still thrown off his feet.

The other DGamer panicked, taking a step back as Arcadia swung her massive axe. Muko crouched low and moved quickly across the room to her allies, starting to undo Kotetsu's ropes. "Next time you're gonna send Arcadia in like that warn me, she scared the hell outta me," the dagger-user said. Muko worked quietly as Arcadia held the two DGamers away with her axe.

"Hurry it up Muko!" she called.

As Muko released Kotetsu, the boy quickly opened his menu and equipped his dagger, swiftly using it to sever Vakross' bindings. The swordsman cracked his neck and got to his feet. "Arcadia move," he said, stepping past the purple haired woman. He strode up to the closest DGamer and grabbed him by the face. "This is payback, asshole," he said in a low voice, lifting the player slightly before launching him out the closest window.

Chrome heard the glass shatter and turned to see a spearman fly out the window and crash to the dirt, rolling several times. He raised an eyebrow at the random event and then turned his attention back to his fight. Chrome crouched down and his shield began to glow green. Hidaro saw his chance and readied his weapon.

"I'm going for it brother!" he yelled, charging at Chrome.

"Hidaro, no! Get back!" Tokunaga yelled, but it was too late. A grim smile came across Chrome's lips and he unleashed his skill.

"Shield Charge!" he called out. He sprung force with incredible speed and rammed his shield hard into Hidaro. Next his sword came up, the blade shining red. "Cross Swirl!" Two lightning fast slashes formed an X on Hidaro's chest before a strong spinning slash sent him to the ground. Chrome spun his sword into a reverse grip and aimed the point at Hidaro. "You're finished," he said, driving the sword down. There was a short scream of fear from Hidaro before he died.

"Y-you bastard… you killed my brother!" Tokunaga roared, charging forward in a rage. Chrome sidestepped the clumsy overhead swing and then kicked the toe of his boot into Tokunaga's ankle. The DGamer fell to the dirt with a thud and Chrome pointed his sword down at him.

"Either surrender now or join your brother back at level one. Your choice," Chrome said in a cold, threatening tone. Tokunaga remained silent and still. Chrome sheathed his sword and turned to the gathered DGamers. "Anyone else wanna try me?" he asked, looking into the eyes of every one of them.

Tokunaga silently rose to his feet behind Chrome, raising his sword and readying himself to bring it down. Just as his sword began to lower, two sharp objects entered his back and a small lightning bolt symbol appeared near his health bar. Chrome spun and drove his sword through Tokunaga's chest as Kotetsu's dagger pierced his lower back. The swordsman fell to the ground with a grunt before he shattered.

"Thanks for that," Chrome said, noting two throwing darts missing from Kotetsu's belt.

"Anytime," Kotetsu said, watching the surrounding DGamers intently.

"What say you asshats give attacking us another try when we're all together," Vakross said, drawing his katana. Arcadia stood at his side with her axe ready as Muko moved up next to Chrome, the sunlight catching the end of her mace.

The large group of DGamers hesitated for a few seconds before they all started taking out teleport crystals and disappearing to various towns. Chrome and his friends all sheathed their weapons, looking around for any remaining enemies.

"I don't think there are any left," Muko said, putting her mace away.

"Well, that was fun. I was half expecting to turn up here and they'd be like I'm sorry, your friends are in another hut," Chrome said, sheathing Amethyst Edge. Vakross let out a sigh at the comment and shook his head.

"Terrible references aside, thanks for coming to save us man," Kotetsu said, placing a hand on Chrome's shoulder.

"Anytime, you'd do the same for me," Chrome replied.

"Damn right I would."

"What should we do now?" Arcadia asked, looking between her comrades.

"Well, I'm off to get an apartment or something, I should have enough money now thanks to the grinding we did today before all this crap happened," Kotetsu said.

"I think I'm going to get some new equipment commissioned, I'm ashamed that I lost to those losers so easily," Vakross said, inspecting his katana.

"Before you guys take off I wanna do something," Chrome said, bringing up his menu. He clicked on several things before each of his friends suddenly had a text box appear in front of them. Each of them read the same thing.

Chrome has invited you to join the following guild:

Azure Storm

Kotetsu grinned and instantly hit the accept button. Everyone else did the same. Chrome smiled a little as the guild symbol, a tear dropped shaped shield with a sword running through it and the letters AS on the side, appeared on each of his friends' chests.

"Badass name and crest," Kotetsu said, inspecting the new image on his breastplate.

"So that's the name you picked from the huge list you were writing in bed last night?" Muko asked with a smile. Chrome nodded. "It sounds good, thank you for letting me join."

"Ditto," Vakross said. "Well, later guys. Let me know if you need me for anything," Vakross said, walking away with a wave.

"I'll probably come visit after I get my place and set it all up," Kotetsu said. He nodded to Chrome and headed off in the same direction as Vakross.

"What will you do Miss Arcadia?" Muko asked, looking at the older woman.

"I was probably going to come bug you two for a while," she said with a mischievous grin.

"How's that any different from any other day?" Chrome asked, beginning the walk back to Algade. Muko took Chrome's hand and walked at his side while Arcadia followed along behind them.

"I'm really glad we saved them," the purple haired woman said quietly with a happy smile.


	18. Chapter 17

Hakuya made his way to the boss room of floor twenty-six where The Frozen King awaited. He dispatched the monster without hardly having to concentrate and took its loot. He spun Gungnir around a few times before placing it on his back. Before Nobunaga had set his plan in motion, Hakuya had only used the rare spear when he absolutely had to, now he made sure he had the weapon equipped at all times in case of a Death Gamer ambush. Kind of like this one.

He glanced around at the eight players slowly surrounding him. They had average equipment, they probably weren't any higher than maybe level forty. Hakuya looked up at his own level, sixty-six. These guys shouldn't typically be a problem. There were a few of them though and he couldn't exactly afford to die.

Hakuya rubbed his chin a little and wondered what to do. He could easily use a teleport crystal to get out of there but then he could also cut them all down and give the weaker players eight less psychopaths to deal with. Hakuya did pride himself on being a helpful gentleman so cut them all down it was.

He drew Gungnir and crouched as the DGamers leapt towards him. They all shouted various things but he wasn't paying attention to their voices. He closed his eyes and the battle began. Two steps to the right and a horizontal swing followed by a spin of his spear and a thrust. That was one down. Next, drag the spear along the ground, turn a little to the left, swing up, thrust down. That made two.

Hakuya felt his feet slide ever so slightly on the icy floor, his eyes remaining closed. Three steps to the left, spinning his spear overhead followed by four lightning fast thrusts, that was three gone. Next he stood his spear straight and moved it to the left blocking a strike from a sword. Four quick steps back took him out of range of a rapier skill and a quick sweep and several thrusts from his spear made short work of the wielder.

With four men down, the others would be panicking now. They would hesitate, then, one would rush in. His spear went above his head and he blocked the overhead sword strike. Flinging the off-balance attacker aside he finished him with a powerful downwards stab. Hakuya tilted his head to the left a little, elbowed the incoming attacker, hit him in the head with the shaft of his spear a few times then stabbed him. Two left, how would they attack?

Hakuya stepped right, then back and to the right again to avoid the double attack by both players. He deflected a slash with the shaft of his weapon, spun the attacker around and then ran him through twice. His back was turned to the final enemy now who would launch a last ditch attack to try and bring him down. Nope, he teleported away.

Hakuya opened his eyes and turned around, scanning the empty boss room before him. He placed his spear on his back once again and took a final look around. "Well… they didn't put up much of a fight now did they?" he asked, turning to the room's entrance. Leaning against the doorway was a man with a large claymore sheathed on his back.

"They didn't appear to, although sometimes I think you show off too much," the man replied in a deep voice. He was well built at had to be over six feet tall. He wore a deep purple breastplate with a black vest beneath. His lower half was covered by a pair of grey pants and knee-high greaves the same colour as his breastplate. He wore elbow-length steel gauntlets that matched the rest of his armour. His pale blue eyes watched Hakuya, his black ponytail bobbing a little as he approached the slightly shorter player.

"Perhaps, but hey, it's fun," Hakuya said with his usual carefree smile. "Is there something I can help you with Souji?" he asked.

"Nothing overly particular. Just thought I should let you know that most of the top guilds have begun preparing to launch an attack on Nobunaga," the swordsman replied.

"I didn't figure it'd take long. I don't think it'll do much though, he seems to have an unnatural control over the system."

"How do you figure that?"

"Would he have been able to execute this plan of his if he didn't?"

"A fair point."

"So, what about The Divine Rose, are they joining the fight?"

"We haven't decided yet. Perhaps if you would come back we'd join in."

"Sorry Souji, but those days are behind me now. Guild life just isn't my thing."

"Says the man who founded this particular guild."

"I'm a free spirit Souji, can't change that now can you? I just go where the winds and the ladies lead me." Souji placed a hand on Hakuya's shoulder. The spearman could see anger clear in the bigger man's eyes.

"People are going to die if this isn't stopped Hakuya. How can you be so damn carefree about it all? Don't you care about any of the other players?" Within seconds Hakuya's spear was aimed at the throat of the massive swordsman.

"Don't you for one second accuse me of not caring. If you so much as think that once more I won't have any remorse putting my weapon through you. If not being with the guild makes me some sort of uncaring fool in your mind then so be it, but do not confuse your own feelings with reality." Souji swallowed slightly and attempted to take a step back, but that razor sharp spearhead followed him.

"All you ever do is run after the first skirt you see. You were once a dignified guild leader and a fearsome name on the frontlines. But now… now I have no respect for you Hakuya. Waste your days away while I go and make a difference in this world and free everyone."

"Do as you will. Souji, we're no longer comrades you and I. If you cannot pull yourself from the rivers of the past then that is no fault of mine. People change and anyone who tries to prevent that is foolish indeed." Hakuya retracted his spear and placed it on his back as he began to walk away. "One more thing, I too am making a difference in this world, but I unlike you do not need the glory and awe of the weak to swell my ego."

Souji watched as Hakuya left the dungeon and finally released the breath he had been holding. He slammed his armoured fist into a pillar as he went the opposite direction the immortal object notice popping up as he fist connected.

As Hakuya exited the dungeon he took out a teleport crystal and made his way to Algade. The fiftieth floor town had become a gathering place for many players. Generally Hakuya would prefer to stick to himself but the noise of the city helped drown out his thoughts. Gungnir bounced softly against his back as he walked along one of the market-filled streets. Players called out from every direction trying to sell their wares but it was just white noise to Hakuya.

Maybe he should go visit Chrome and his friends, those kids always gave him a laugh. He was snapped out of his thoughts when a hand tapped him twice on the shoulder. Hakuya's head flicked up and he spun around to see Arcadia standing behind him.

"Arcadia," he said, his clouded mind making him unsure of what to say.

"What, no princess or flirting today?" the purple haired woman asked, a small grin on her face.

"My apologies, my mind is… occupied," Hakuya said, trying his best to smile.

"Hmm, is something wrong? I've never seen you like this," Arcadia said, looking a little worried. Hakuya shook his head.

"Nothing you need to worry about… Princess," Hakuya replied with a hint of his usual smile.

"Come on, I'll treat you to lunch to get you back to normal," Arcadia said as she began to walk past him. She turned her head a little. "That is acceptable right?" Hakuya laughed a little.

"I suppose just once I can be the one being taken out somewhere," he said.

The two proceeded to a small outdoor café where Arcadia ordered them a drink and something to eat each. The two sat down and proceeded to eat their meals as they were served. "So, what's wrong?" Arcadia asked, looking at Hakuya.

"As I said, it's nothing you need to worry about, I'm fine," Hakuya replied.

"Oh just tell me would you. I can tell something is up, you're completely different to normal," Arcadia said. Hakuya sighed a little, smiled and ran his finger around the rim of his glass.

"I just had a rather ugly reunion with an old friend. Some things he said got to me a little, that's all." Hakuya took the time to recount the whole conversation with Souji to Arcadia. The latter listened intently as she witnessed a side of Hakuya she had never seen before.

"Well, it seems to me this Souji guy is an ass," Arcadia remarked.

"That's what you get from all that? My old friend is an ass," Hakuya said with a small smile.

"What you chose to do is something that only you can decide. If you had chosen to remain with that guild then so be it, but you didn't and Souji has no right to try and drag you back. You are free to live your life your own way, doing what you desire. If you live life trying to please others than it's only going to lead in your own sadness and regret," Arcadia said, looking up at the sky.

"Well now, such deep words of wisdom," Hakuya said, grinning. Arcadia turned, glaring at the spearman.

"Hey, I'm trying to help you here," Arcadia said. Hakuya couldn't help but laugh.

"Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the insight," Hakuya said, waving his hands in front of him. "It's just unusual to hear you talking like that."

"It's not exactly normal to see you all down and quiet."

"My apologies Princess, I shall endeavour to remain upbeat at all times."

"That's not what I meant you dork, it's nice to get a break from the flirting once in a while."

"Then I must apologise again Princess, this is how I would like to live my life. It would be rude of you to try and make me change," Hakuya said with a huge grin. Arcadia's eyebrow twitched a little and she stared at Hakuya.

"You really are impossible," Arcadia sighed, shaking her head. Hakuya smiled and rose to his feet.

"Thank you for the meal and the talk, Arcadia. It means a lot," he said. Arcadia could see the sincerity in the other player's eyes and she could hear it in his voice. "Would you mind if I added you to my friend list, it would be nice to have another trustworthy ally in this game."

"Sure, I guess it can't hurt," Arcadia said with a small smile, opening her menu. The two added one another and Hakuya gave a small bow.

"If you'll excuse me Princess, I have some matters to attend to," he said.

"Until next time then. Later Hakuya," Arcadia said. The two shared a smile and then Hakuya departed. He opened his menu and stared at the new name on his friend list, smiling a little as he closed the window. The smile remained on his face as he teleported out of Algade.


	19. Chapter 18

Chrome's eyes slowly opened as sunlight filtered through his bedroom window. He glanced over to his right and his brow furrowed a little. Something was wrong here. Usually at this point in the morning, there would be a rather pronounced lump under the blankets on the other side of the bed. This morning however the right-hand side was flat and tidy.

Chrome slid out of bed and made his way out into the kitchen. Still no sign of Muko. Getting somewhat worried now, he equipped Amethyst Edge and proceeded outside. He glanced around but still could not see her. His eyes wandered up to the time on his HUD, it was only eight in the morning, Muko was never up this early. He opened up his friends list and could see that Muko was over at Lisbeth's Smith Shop. Chrome breathed a sigh of relief and made his way to the store.

"Hiya Chrome," Lisbeth said as she saw the swordsman walk into her store.

"Morning," Chrome replied, walking up next to Muko who was standing at the counter. "How come you're up so early?" he asked his girlfriend.

"I just had some business with Lisbeth," Muko replied with a small smile. Chrome raised his eyebrow slightly, she was hiding something, he could tell.

"How's your equipment holding up? Does it need a service yet?" Lisbeth asked, leaning on the counter and looking up at Chrome.

"I think it's okay for now. We haven't really seen too much action since all this started up," Chrome replied.

"You're not the only one. I've lost so many customers lately because people are just so afraid to fight. This isn't like the original SAO. We fought back then because we knew if we got strong enough we could get out, but this is different. Now no matter how hard we fight it doesn't seem like there's any way of getting out of this game," Lisbeth said with a weary sigh.

"There has to be a way…," Chrome muttered, looking at the floor.

"Don't worry, we'll find it," Muko said reassuringly, placing a hand on Chrome's shoulder. Chrome smiled at her and nodded. Lisbeth grinned at the small exchange.

"Aww, you two are just so adorable," she said. Chrome and Muko both blushed, looking in opposite directions. This only caused the pink haired blacksmith to grin even more. Chrome was snapped out of his embarrassment when he heard a small chime, alerting him that he had gotten a message. He looked at the sender, Veille. Chrome opened the message and read the contents and read it aloud.

D Hunter Chrome,

I have heard much about you from my own men and those of my former allies. I would like to test your strength for myself and see if you stand up to the stories. Should you accept this duel, meet me in the Town of Beginnings in the main plaza in ten minutes.

The Gilded Templars,

Veille

Chrome rubbed his chin a little as he took in the message. He had never had any contact with this player, heck he hadn't even heard of him until a few days ago and now he was being challenged by the guy. Muko frowned slightly as she listened to Chrome speak.

"Why does Veille want to fight you? I've never known him to randomly challenge people like this before," she said.

"Plenty of people seem to be taking an interest in me lately," Chrome said in a somewhat irritated tone. He stepped into Lisbeth's workshop and returned a few seconds later in his full combat gear.

"You're gonna fight this guy?" Lisbeth asked, looking at the swordsman.

"Muko said this guy is pretty strong so I wanna see for myself. I also want to know why he challenged me like this and I don't think he'll tell me unless we fight," Chrome replied, checking his sword and shield.

"I'll come with you then, I can cheer you on," Muko said with a smile.

"I wanna come too, this could be cool to watch," Lisbeth said. Chrome nodded to the two girls and headed outside with Muko while Lisbeth closed up her shop. "Okay, good to go," the pink haired girl said as she exited the store. With that, the three headed down to floor one.

Chrome could identify Veille as soon as he arrived at the Town of Beginnings. The DGamer was dressed in a long golden cloak that covered all of his other clothes. His silver eyes watched Chrome approach as he pushed back his red hair. A serious expression remained on the clearly older player's face as he looked Chrome up and down.

"Skinnier than I thought you'd be," Veille said in a coarse voice.

"You're flashier than I thought you'd be," Chrome said, inspecting the golden cloak. Veille removed his cloak and revealed his equipment beneath.

He wore a simple silver breastplate with a golden insignia of an old Templar crest on the right hand side. A pair of black trousers ran down his legs and were cut off below the knees by a pair of brown reinforced leather boots. What drew Chrome's attention most though were the massive black gauntlets that ran up to his elbows. The black steel shone in the sunlight and the gold trimmings broke up the dark colour. On the back of each gauntlet was Veille's guild crest.

Chrome knew with one look that those gauntlets were very high level pieces of equipment. The punches from those were going to hurt, a lot. Chrome took a deep breath and waited for the duel challenge screen to appear before him. Chrome accepted as soon as it did, watching as a sixty second countdown appeared. He drew Amethyst Edge and readied his Shield of the Storm.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna kill you," Veille said, taking up a combat stance. Chrome remained silent as the countdown continued. He watched it intently. Five, four, three, two, one.

Veille shot at Chrome like a missile and the swordsman raised his shield to defend against the violent flurry of punches that was unleashed upon him. Even blocking the attack, Chrome still lost a noticeable chunk of his HP gauge. Chrome lowered his shield and swung his sword quickly, forcing Veille to jump back. He wasn't going to give him time to breathe though.

Chrome charged in, his sword clashing against those massive gauntlets several times, sparks flying with every impact. Veille let a single punch fly, a lightning fast jab to the stomach that lifted Chrome from the ground and threw him back quite a distance. He slid along the cobblestones and quickly regained his composure. He crouched down with his shield raised as Veille charged.

Veille delivered another powerful straight punch. Chrome's shield glowed purple as it intercepted the fist and batted it to the side. His sword, glowing the same purple came up in a vertical arc and struck the unsuspecting player. Veille staggered back slightly as his HP decreased from the Guardian Wave skill. The two stood and stared at each other as the gathered crowd held their breath, wondering what would happen.

Both players smiled eagerly and charged at each other with their weapons raised. Veille jabbed and Chrome ducked. Chrome stabbed and Veille stepped to the side. Veille dropped his elbow and Chrome raised his shield. The two players leapt back, panting as they inspected their HP. Both of them knew this duel wouldn't last much longer.

Chrome took a deep breath and charged and his sword glowed green. His speed increased and he leapt into the air, using a long range jump slash skill. Mere seconds before the attack would connect, Veille stepped back just enough to ensure the sword missed him. Chrome closed his eyes, knowing the battle was over.

Veille's glowing red fist delivered a vicious uppercut that launched Chrome into the air. But the attack wasn't over there. Veille leapt into the air after him, delivering four rapid blows into Chrome's stomach and chest. Chrome watched helplessly as Veille twisted in mid-air and the heel of his boot smashed into Chrome's jaw. The swordsman flew straight down and crashed into the air with a loud noise and a large cloud of dust.

There was a lot of chattering from the onlookers as the words Winner: Veille appeared in the sky. Muko rushed over to Chrome, helping him to his feet. The young swordsman looked up at his HP gauge, it sat right on the line between yellow and red.

"An impressive fight D Hunter," Veille said, handing his opponent a health potion. Chrome graciously accepted the item and began to sip it.

"Likewise," Chrome responded, still trying to catch his breath. His equipment hadn't needed a service before the fight but they certainly did now. The two players stood facing each other and held out their hands. Both took the other's and shook firmly before taking a small step back.

"It's a pleasure to meet one with such a reputation as yours. I, as you know am Veille, leader of The Gilded Templars."

"Chrome, and I lead the guild Azure Storm."

"Hmm, I was not aware you had your own guild."

"It's only new."

"I see… that information has made this whole endeavour somewhat pointless."

"How so?"

"I challenged you to a duel to test your strength, I was going to invite you to join The Gilded Templars." Veille rubbed his chin slowly, feeling a little bad for wasting his opponent's time.

"Well I appreciate the offer but you see why I can't accept. May I ask why you wanted me?" Chrome asked. He was curious as to why a Death Gamer would want someone known as the Death Hunter to join his guild.

"I plan to destroy the Death Gamers. For that I need as many strong players on my side as I can get," Veille explained as he equipped his cloak once more. Chrome definitely was not expecting the words that Veille spoke and was somewhat taken aback.

"Wait, but you are a Death Gamer, why would you want to attack them?" Lisbeth asked, approaching Chrome and Veille. Muko joined them, curious as to Veille's actions.

"I understand your confusion. Perhaps we could speak somewhere a little more private though. Who knows who might be listening," Veille said, glancing around. Chrome nodded and the four along with two of Veille's personal guard headed to Chrome and Muko's house.

Veille's guards, an axeman and a spearman stood in the building's entrance hall while Chrome, Muko, Lisbeth and Veille all sat in the living room. Muko prepared tea and coffee for everyone. Veille nodded as his coffee was handed to him.

"So, what do you mean when you say you want to destroy the DGamers?" Chrome asked, looking at the martial artist.

"Exactly that. I am going to defeat all of the DGamers under the command of Nobunaga. There are only two of the DGamer guilds and a handful of solo players that did not choose to help him," Veille explained.

"The other guild is Kurogane's Death Blade Alliance right?" Muko asked. Veille nodded in response.

"Yes. He too thinks that what Nobunaga has done is pure insanity and that he has to be stopped. The major guilds are preparing to launch a major assault on Nobunaga but I doubt it will do anything. If he went to all the trouble of setting all this up I doubt he'd have let it all be for nothing should he be defeated by someone."

"Why don't you just go along with the other guilds? I'm sure they'll have to fight the Death Gamers anyway," Lisbeth said.

"You voiced the reason earlier. My guild members and I are Death Gamers, the enemy in all of this. Do you really think they'd be willing to work with us?" Veille asked. Lisbeth nodded slightly, she understood his reasoning.

"So how exactly do you plan to destroy every Death Gamer working with Nobunaga? They aren't all in a giant castle with 'DGamers are here' in neon lights," Chrome pointed out, sipping his cup of tea.

"I have had some of my men working undercover in Nobunaga's ranks and they have sent me the locations of each of the strongholds of my targets. I plan to gather as many people as I can and strike them all simultaneously," Veille explained.

"A sound plan, there is a flaw however. How can you be sure those you sent in as spies haven't double crossed you? They could be leading you into a trap. I would assume you're a rather large threat to them after all," said Chrome.

"It's a risk I'm willing to take. The more of those bastards I can send crying back to the Town of Beginnings, the easier it will be to get at Nobunaga and find a way out of this mess," Veille said. Chrome could see in the man's eyes that he was serious about this.

"What do you think Chrome, should we help out?" Muko asked, sitting down on the arm of Chrome's chair and looking at him.

"It's one hell of a risk and if it's a trap, a lot of good players may be killed and dropped back to level one. If that happens, it could be months or even a year before we could do anything about Nobunaga. I will help, but there are three things I will tell you right here and now," Chrome said, looking at Veille with a serious expression.

"Go ahead," the DGamer guild master said.

"One, I will not do this unless all of my guild members support it and are willing to join in. Two, I will not endanger any of them, at the first sign of a trap we will leave immediately. Three, there is no way in hell I am going to work with Kurogane or his men."

"Each fair points. I understand each of them. You have my word that I will keep all three in mind."

"Good. I'll need to contact each of my guild members and then I will message you to say if we will be helping or not."

"Very well. Thank you for your time. I hope to see you on the battlefield." As Veille spoke he rose to his feet and made his way to the door. He bowed slightly to Chrome and Muko before leaving the house with his guards.

"Are you sure about this Chrome?" Muko asked as she looked at her boyfriend.

"Not really. But if there's a chance we can stop the DGamers attacking people then we need to take it. After that, maybe we can find a way out of here," Chrome replied.

"Sounds like you're in for one heck of a fight. How about we get your equipment all fixed up? You took a good beating in that duel," Lisbeth said with a smile.

"Sure, I'm probably gonna need another service pretty soon though," Chrome replied.

"Why?" Muko asked.

"There's just something I need to do, that's all."


	20. Chapter 19

Vakross' katana swept several directions as he unleashed a basic combo to defeat the enemy he was facing. His eyes flickered up to his three-quarter full HP gauge as the monster shattered before him and his hands did the unconscious actions to retrieve his spoils. Vakross had gone into the dungeon on the forty-third floor to gain a material Lisbeth required to forge his new sword. Both Chrome and Kotetsu had offered to accompany him but Vakross had opted to get himself some alone time, precious little of that these days.

He sheathed his weapon and proceeded further into the volcano-like dungeon. Magma could be seen seeping through the walls and down into the black abyss that could be seen below the rather narrow walkway. One wrong step and Vakross knew he'd fall into that blackness and would die within seconds. One wrong step and he'd be back to level one, another victim of Kurogane's game.

He smiled grimly as he walked. He had already survived one death game, this one was nowhere near as bad as Akihiko Kayaba's. At least in this world, death wasn't so terrifying, it was more of an inconvenience.

As the thought ran through his mind, a monster materialised before him. It was a worm roughly five feet long and maybe two or three feet wide. Its body was covered in a thick grey stone and Vakross could see an orange light pouring out of the cracks in the thick plates. He looked above the creature and read its name. Magma Worm. How original, Vakross thought to himself.

He let out a small sigh and unsheathed his weapon once more and he heard the BGM change to a more intense and upbeat battle theme. Vakross silently counted to three and then charged in opening the battle with three powerful overhead swings. His brow furrowed slightly when he watched his opponent's HP barely go down at all. He attacked once more before leaping back as the worm swung its tail at him.

This battle could take a while with that thing's defence, he thought. Vakross knew that at a time like this a powerhouse like Arcadia would be quite helpful. Another grim smile crossed his lips. In the original death game, he'd have never had a thought like that. Every fight had been a challenge he had overcome by himself without help from anyone.

Only occasionally had he fought on the frontlines with the rest of the clearing team, other times he focused on clearing entire dungeons solo of just fighting to make enough money to survive. Sometimes he fought just for the sake of fighting. Back then, the thought of being in a guild with other people was pointless to him.

Vakross continued to reminisce mentally as the lengthy battle against the Magma Worm continued. The battle took a while but eventually he watched the monster explode into data. He sheathed his sword, took his rewards and continued once more. Where the hell was the monster he needed?

He had come into the dungeon looking for a monster called a Volcanic Warlord. His information broker had said they only spawned on the fifth floor and were quite tough to beat. Apparently they dropped an item called Feudal Steel which was what Lisbeth needed.

He'd been searching this furnace of a dungeon for the last two hours and still hadn't found the damn thing. At this point he was getting quite irritated. Vakross made his way into the only part of the map he hadn't explored yet. It was a decent sized rectangular room with a raised, stone platform in the centre. He ascended the small staircase and stood on the platform.

As soon as he neared the centre a humanoid enemy appeared on the far side. Vakross took in its appearance. The, what he assumed was a man, stood at least six and a half feet tall and was dressed in traditional Japanese samurai armour coloured crimson. On either side of its belt sat a sheathed katana. The samurai's eye's glowed a bright red and it made some rather inhuman sounds. Vakross already knew, but he glanced above its head just to be sure. Volcanic Warlord.

"About freakin' time," Vakross muttered, cracking his neck on both sides and drawing his katana. It made that familiar hissing noise as it slid from its leather sheath and settled comfortably into his grip. Once again the battle BGM began playing all around and Vakross took a deep breath.

The samurai drew its twin katanas but Vakross was not expecting the long, flaming blades that emerged. He raised an eyebrow as he looked them over, he had to admit they were pretty badass. He didn't waste any time though and swiftly charged in. He raised his own katana up to the left with both hands as one of the warlord's weapons glanced off the cold, steel blade. The block was instantly up by a downwards, diagonal stroke that opened a gash in the samurai's armour that bled data.

A knee to the stomach threw Vakross back but he quickly regained his composure and deflected a series of lightning fast slashes by responding in kind. He struggled to match the speed of the two swords with his one and saw his HP deplete ever so slightly.

He could feel the heat emanating from each of those long swords as they came down at him. Each impact sent vibrations through his body. He kept his eyes locked with the samurai's as the feeling of adrenalin coursing through his veins overtook him. This feeling was a familiar one. One he hadn't felt since coming to the new SAO. This was the feeling of a life-or-death battle. He couldn't stop the grin that spread across his lips and the eagerness that ignited in his eyes.

A well-timed push from Vakross moved the Volcanic Warlord away from him and he charged in, closing the newly gained distance in barely two seconds. Vakross' blade glowed aqua and his five hit combo began. A powerful upwards slash, followed by two lighting fast diagonal cuts forming an X and finished off with a powerful thrust that pierced his opponent's body and then blew him away with a powerful shockwave.

Vakross watched a sizeable chunk of the warlord's HP disappear and he took up a defensive stance as the enemy came towards him. Again those flaming swords came down on him but this time Vakross let his body take over as he began blocking the attacks in what seemed like slow motion. The combo was interrupted when the warlord swung its leg out. The top of its foot slammed into the side of Vakross' stomach, lifting the player off the ground and launching him into the air. The warlord turned and its eyes seemed to flash as it crossed its arms and then swung both its swords out horizontally in opposite directions.

The attack left a gash all the way across Vakross' stomach, robbed him of almost a quarter of his HP and blew him off the raised platform. He crashed down onto the warm, stone floor, couching slightly as he sat himself up against the wall. There was barely a second before the Volcanic Warlord landed on the ground in front of him with a loud thud. Vakross gritted his teeth and rolled to the left as both of his enemy's swords thrust down and pierced the ground where he had been.

He scrambled to his feet and raised his sword once more as his opponent slowly came at him, the tips of the two flaming swords dragging along the floor. The corner of Vakross' mouth rose in an eager grin that showed his teeth as he ran forward. He side stepped a downwards swing from the warlord and leapt into the air. Vakross' knees bent and then straightened as he kicked off the wall with a roar.

First his sword pierced the chest of his opponent and then his shoulder smashed into the samurai's armour, sending both of them crashing into the side of the central platform. The Volcanic Warlord groaned slightly as Vakross got to his feet. The player turned his back to the enemy and took a single step away, his sword glowing green. He made two rapid slashes ahead of himself, before spinning his sword into a reverse grip and plunging the blade backwards past his stomach with his open palm pressed against the end of the handle.

Vakross' head turned slightly as he watched the curved blade dig into his slumped opponent's forehead. There was a delay before the Volcanic Warlord shattered and Vakross' sword was dragged down slightly by gravity. He returned his grip on the weapon to normal and sheathed it. He claimed the two pieces of Feudal Steel the monster had dropped as well as its Col before teleporting from the dungeon with a crystal.

The twilight scenery of Lindas was the same as usual as Vakross made his way towards Lisbeth's smith shop. He pushed open the wooden door and heard the familiar bell chime as he did so. The pink-haired blacksmith was standing behind the counter on the far end of the room as usual and Vakross walked up to here.

"Here," he said, placing the two pieces of Feudal Steel and an ample amount of Col on the counter.

"Wow, you actually managed to get some. I've heard of parties killing that enemy more than five times and not getting a single piece," Lisbeth commented.

"I guess he was feeling generous today."

"I guess so."

Lisbeth gathered up the materials and Col, gave Vakross a slight nod and headed down into her workshop. Vakross followed behind, leaning against the door as he closed it and watching Lisbeth take out her hammer. She placed the pieces of Feudal Steel on the anvil and began striking it at a steady pace. Vakross watched as the two pieces of steel slowly began to warp and change shape.

It was a minute or so before the task was complete. Vakross unfolded his arms and walked down to the anvil, gazing upon his new weapon in silence. The blade was four inches longer than his current blade and the silver steel seemed to hold a pale red sheen. The hilt of the sword was an ornate looking flower, bronze in colour with intricate detailing in each petal. The handle was again slightly longer than Vakross' current katana and was bound in a deep purple leather.

Vakross placed his fingers around the cool leather and lifted the sword. It was heavy but perfectly balanced. He took a few test swings and watched the transparent, red trail each stroke left behind the blade.

"It's called the Crimson Lotus, a one of a kind sword just like Chrome's Amethyst Edge," Lisbeth explained, putting her hammer away. Vakross looked over the weapon and couldn't help but smile slightly. It was one hell of a sword.

"I like it. It's perfect," he said.

"That's great! I'm so happy it turned out well."

"Thank you for all of your work. With this sword, I'll carve through the DGamers like butter."

Vakross took quite a substantial amount of Col out and handed it to Lisbeth. The girl tried her hardest to refuse the extra money but eventually gave in as Vakross continued to force it on her.

"I feel bad taking this much money from you," Lisbeth said with a somewhat sad tone.

"This blade is going to help keep me alive. I think the money I gave you is the very least I should be offering," Vakross said. Lisbeth sighed and gave up, she knew she wouldn't win this one.

"Well just make sure you're careful out there and make sure nobody in Azure Storm gets killed." Vakross nodded and made his way out of the shop.

For the first time in god knows how long, probably forever, Vakross had something to fight for. Several years ago in Kayaba's death game, he couldn't have cared less about clearing the game, every day was just a fight for survival in a world that was out to kill him.

But now, he would do whatever it took, fight as many battles as he had to in order to stop Kurogane and get out of here. He had friends to protect, they gave him a reason to fight. If he had to, Vakross would die to make sure his friends broke everyone out of this game. He thought about that on his way home, dying for the sake of others. It sounded pretty valiant and all, but dying, well, that wasn't exactly in his immediate plans.

A small grin crept across his lips as his fingertips ran along the handle of the Crimson Lotus. This fight was far from over. It was only just beginning.


	21. Chapter 20

Muko rolled over in bed, watching as Chrome stood at the window in his full battle gear. One hand sat on the window sill while the other rested on the handle of Amethyst Edge. Muko blinked a few times and sat up, watching as her boyfriend turned, seeing her movement in the corner of his eye. "Morning," he said quietly with a gentle smile.

"Good morning," Muko said, rubbing her eyes with her fists. "How come you have all your armour on?" she asked, watching as his cape fluttered around his arm from the gentle breeze that came through the open window.

"I'm going to be getting us a new guild member today. Someone to help out with this offensive of Veille's," Chrome replied.

"That requires you to be fully equipped? Normal people send out invites," Muko said with a playful smile. She knew Chrome would have a reason but she felt it fun to pick on him a little. Chrome smiled in return.

"The person I'm asking to join us, I know they're not going to just say yes. I'll have to prove my strength to him before he'll join."

"Who are you asking?" Muko tilted her head slightly.

"Hakuya."

Muko nodded her understanding now. Hakuya had never seemed like the kind of person to join a guild. Whenever they had met him, he'd always show up out of nowhere and then simply vanish suddenly. She knew that he would be a powerful ally and she knew Chrome had come to the same conclusion. She had been meaning to ask for a few days now why he hadn't invited Hakuya to join the guild and now she knew why. Obviously Chrome had known Hakuya wouldn't join easily and that's why he had been levelling quite a lot the last few days.

"Do you have a plan for fighting against him if it comes to that?" Muko asked, climbing out of bed in her pyjamas. Chrome smiled a little at the cute pink pyjamas she wore adorned with little penguins.

"Not losing is pretty much the gist of it," Chrome said, heading into the living room. Muko followed along behind him after she changed into her combat gear.

"Such a well thought out strategy," Muko said.

"No use making some intricate plan, I know Hakuya won't do that. He's the kind of guy who just fights his heart out and lets his weapon speak for him. I'm just going to do the same," Chrome explained.

"Hey, Ren," Muko said quietly, her eyes to the ground. Chrome was somewhat surprised, it sounded odd but that's the first time he had heard his real name ever since becoming trapped inside ALO. Even he had just been thinking of himself as Chrome.

"What is it?" he asked, matching the quietness of his girlfriend's voice.

"We're going to get out of here, right?" Muko asked. Chrome smiled and took the mace-user in his arms gently, stroking her hair as he held her.

"Don't worry, I promise I'll get us out, Megumi," he whispered, giving her a small kiss on the lips. Muko smiled up at him and the two stood together for a few moments. The moment was broken when Chrome received a message.

"That'll be Hakuya," he said.

"You already asked him to join?"

"No, I just asked him if he could meet me here in Lindas so we could talk."

"Is he coming?"

"He said he'll be here in a minute."

The couple headed outside and watched as Hakuya came walking up the road, his usual carefree expression on his face. Neither Chrome or Muko had expected to see Arcadia walking with him though.

"Wait… that's… right?" Muko asked, unable to make a complete sentence. Her eyes were wide and her jaw hung open slightly.

"Yep, that's Arcadia," Chrome said, his eyebrow raised slightly. He thought Arcadia couldn't stand Hakuya. Looks like she could stand him more than anyone thought, he thought to himself with a slight grin. "So, how is the happy couple this morning?" Chrome asked, the grin still on his face. He saw Arcadia twitch slightly as he spoke but it was Hakuya who answered.

"Great! How about you two?" Hakuya asked, a massive grin on his face too.

"Can't complain," Chrome said in response.

"It's been a while Miss Arcadia," Muko said, smiling at the older woman.

"Yes it has, I hope you've been well," Arcadia said, ignoring Chrome completely as she moved over to Muko.

"Very," Muko said.

The four spent a few minutes speaking and catching up before Hakuya decided to get into things.

"So, I'm assuming there's a reason you called me here?" he asked, still keeping up his carefree look.

"Yeah, I wanted to ask you something but I think I already know the answer," Chrome replied.

"Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of the question then?" Hakuya asked.

"No, because if you give the answer I'm expecting then it's good that I called you here."

"Shoot then."

"I want to invite you to join Azure Storm, do you accept?"

Arcadia tensed up a little as the question was asked. She had expected that's what this was about and she remembered Hakuya telling her his response to when Souji had asked him to return to his old guild. Hakuya looked into Chrome's eyes. There was no doubt he was serious about this. Hakuya sighed slightly and turned away.

"Someone invited me to a guild not too long ago and the response they got was less than pleasant. It's not a side I'd like to show to someone I consider a friend," Hakuya said, his voice serious. Arcadia was nervous now, unsure of what Hakuya would do.

"What if we have a duel?" Chrome asked. The words caught Hakuya's attention, he could see the taller man's posture straighten slightly. "If you win I'll drop this completely, but if I win then you join Azure Storm, deal?"

"I figured you'd use a card like that, it suits you perfectly. You had this all planned out," Hakuya said, turning with a slight smile. Chrome simply nodded to the spearman. "Very well, I accept your terms. Know however, I'm not going to hold back against you." Hakuya took Gungnir from his back and pointed it at Chrome.

"I wouldn't have it any other way." Chrome readied his sword and shield as he sent the duel request to Hakuya. The blonde haired spearman accepted and the one minute timer began counting down.

Chrome watched as Hakuya took up a low fighting stance, his cobalt armour seemed to shine slightly in the morning sunlight. The sword and shield user took a deep breath as he readied himself, he knew this wasn't going to be an easy fight.

As soon as the timer vanished, Hakuya moved. Chrome wasn't expecting the sudden impact to his cheek from the shaft of Hakuya's weapon. It wasn't enough to knock him from his feet but it certainly forced him back a few centimetres. He was ready for the next attack though and blocked the strike with his shield before jumping back slightly.

Both Arcadia and Muko watched without saying a word. The battle had only just started but both could feel the intensity coming from both combatants.

Chrome was the next to attack with a lightning fast arc of his sword. Hakuya gracefully jumped away from the attack and crouched down low. Chrome knew that Hakuya had a massive reach advantage so he'd have to fight carefully.

The two charged at each other and their weapons continued to ring together as they clashed. The two fighters locked eyes each time their weapons clashed and both could see that neither would give up. Chrome pushed his shield out, causing Hakuya to shift his spear to avoid the strike. The block however allowed Chrome to stab out at his opponent's hip.

Although Hakuya dodged a majority of the attack, the edge of Chrome's sword still ran along his body, leaving a shallow gash. The spearman took a few steps back but Chrome kept up his assault. Hakuya knew Chrome was trying to unleash as many attacks as he could to try and make up for his lower level.

The two landed several attacks on each other over the course of two minutes. Chrome had lost about a third of his HP while Hakuya had only lost just over a quarter of his. The duel would end when one of them dropped to a quarter of their HP.

"Still wanna keep going?" Hakuya asked, twirling his spear around and pointing it diagonally at the ground, the majority of the shaft behind him.

"Do you really need to ask?" Chrome asked, shaking his shield arm slightly. His Shield of the Storm had taken quite a beating in this battle, he hoped it would last until the end. Chrome unleashed a fast eight hit combo with Hakuya gracefully dodging each attack before following up with a low sweep of his spear at the end.

Muko watched as Chrome fell to the ground. A bead of sweat ran down her face and her hands were clasped tightly together over her chest. Arcadia stood with her arms crossed, she seemed rather relaxed to Muko but the younger girl could tell that she too was on edge.

Chrome rolled backwards and leapt to his feet as Gungnir pierced the ground where he had fallen. He took a deep breath and shook his head, Hakuya was just as strong as he had anticipated if not stronger. If he didn't do something soon he'd lose without even taking off half of his opponent's HP.

Chrome ran forward and leapt into the air. As he began to fall, his sword blade glowed green and he began spinning on a slight angle, leaving a green circular trail around himself as he went. Hakuya raised his spear with both hands, grunting with effort as he blocked the skill. He pushed his spear out and pushed Chrome away.

As Chrome landed, Hakuya spun his spear above his head, the whole weapon glowing golden. He brought the spear down and thrust forward. Chrome blocked the point of the spear with his shield but the weapon emitted a powerful shockwave that blew Chrome back several feet and put him on his back once more.

"You must like the ground," Hakuya said, striding towards his opponent. All traces of the usual carefree Hakuya were gone at this point. His voice was serious and his eyes showed the same thing. Chrome could hear the quiet clinking of Hakuya's boots as he approached and he knew if he didn't move this was going to be the end.

The swordsman groaned slightly as he rose to feet. His HP was just under half now meaning one or two more good hits would probably end him. Hakuya spun his spear slightly and pointed it at Chrome, staring the younger player straight in the eyes. "Disappointing, I really expected more from you," he sighed, pulling his spear back and readying an attack.

As Hakuya lunged forward, Chrome raised his shield and batted the spear aside. He charged in as he did so, Hakuya's weapon grinding against his weapon. Chrome moved his shield and swiftly bashed Hakuya in the face with it before delivering a powerful slash to his stomach.

Hakuya stepped back and thrust his spear out but Chrome sidestepped the attack and closed in. The spearman eyed Chrome curiously, what happened? He just changed in an instant. Chrome's shield glowed purple and he rammed it into Hakuya, knocking the spearman onto the ground.

Hakuya nimbly got back to his feet but Chrome was already coming forward with another skill. The swordsman swept his leg out, causing Hakuya to fall to the ground face-first before striking him hard in the back of the head with this shield. It was only thanks to Hakuya's superior level that he was able to survive the brutal attacks and get back to his feet.

Both players were now panting hard and staring each other down. Neither could supress the grins that came across their faces. Both were now down to just over one quarter HP, Hakuya with slightly more than Chrome. Both Muko and Arcadia's hearts hammered as they watched the battle.

Chrome watched as Hakuya began spinning his spear around in front of him, the weapon glowing blue. "This is one of the strongest spear skills in this game Chrome. You won't survive it," the taller player said.

"We'll see about that," Chrome said in response. He stood with his legs apart and steadied himself as his shield began to glow gold. "It all comes down to this, don't fail me Giga Shield."

As Hakuya stopped spinning his spear and began to charge, Chrome closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Time seemed to slow as the two got closer and closer together. Muko seemed unable to draw a breath as she watched.

Chrome heard Hakuya call out the name of his skill but it was just white noise to him as his shield came up before him. Gungnir connected with the Shield of the Storm and Chrome was astounded by the amount of force behind the attack. His arm shook as the spear continued to push against his reinforced shield.

Then, Chrome saw it. Several cracks began spreading out across his shield before it shattered with what seemed like the sound of an explosion to him. Shards of data flew in every direction as Hakuya's spear stopped right before Chrome's chest. Hakuya twisted the spear upwards and the butt of the shaft connected with Chrome's jaw, knocking him to the ground and diminishing the remaining chunk of his HP down to less than a quarter.

Chrome's eyes closed as the winner icon appeared above Hakuya. Muko ran over to the fallen swordsman and crouched down beside him, her hand on his shoulder. Chrome could hear her asking if he was okay but he couldn't find the strength to respond.

"Don't worry, I was careful not to kill him," Hakuya said, walking over to Chrome and Muko. Arcadia too joined them.

"I guess you're still too strong for me," Chrome groaned, slowly sitting up.

"I don't know about that, if your shield had held you probably would have beaten me," Hakuya said, helping the swordsman up. "Sorry about breaking it by the way."

"You better be sorry, that was an event item."

"I'll get you a new shield to make up for it."

"Damn right you will."

"So, about joining your guild."

Chrome sighed and shook his head with a sad smile.

"No, I lost. You don't have to worry about joining. I'm not going to force you," he said.

"You don't have to force me. You more than proved yourself in that fight. I'd be happy to become a member of Azure Storm," Hakuya said with a smile.

"Are you sure?" Chrome asked.

"It'll be a good change. Besides, all of you guys are pretty amusing to be around," Hakuya said as his carefree persona returned.

"Thank you Hakuya," Chrome said.

"So has everyone agreed to help out that Veille guy with his mission?" Arcadia asked, looking at Chrome. Before he replied, Chrome led everyone inside the house so they were away from any potential eavesdroppers.

"To answer your question, yes. Well everyone except Hakuya anyway," Chrome said. The spearman in question waved his hand, showing that he'd do whatever the guild wanted to do. "Well I guess everyone is in then."

"I guess that means we'll be going to attack the DGamers soon then huh?" Arcadia asked. Chrome nodded in response. "Will you be okay?" the teacher asked, looking over at Muko.

"Yes. I assure you I'll have no problems fighting them. I can never forgive any of them for what they've done," Muko said. Arcadia could see how serious the girl was and nodded her approval.

"Well feel free to message me whenever you need me, I'll be out doing some levelling before we go removing some DGamer heads," Arcadia said as she rose to her feet and stretched. In less than a second Hakuya was on his feet behind her.

"I shall accompany you Princess," he said with a slight bow. This was followed by Arcadia pushing him back down onto the couch.

"No, you're going to go help Chrome replace the shield you broke."

"Aww, well that's no fun."

"You reap what you sow."

With that Arcadia left a sulking Hakuya behind in Chrome and Muko's house. There were a few minutes of idle chatter before the three left for Lisbeth's smith shop. As they walked, Chrome knew now that Azure Storm had gotten a lot more powerful with the addition of Hakuya. His expression grew serious as he thought to himself.

The DGamers better start praying to their gods, because soon they'd be meeting them.


End file.
